When The Assassin Met The Crook
by jennagreenpotter
Summary: This is the story of Leonard and Sara and how they became attracted to each other, which includes their interactions and missing moments from Season 1, plus my own interpretation of what could have happened in Seasons 2 and 3 (if the writers had cared about Captain Canary), and how the story of their relationship resolved. Any reviews would be much appreciated! Thank you :)
1. The Engine Room of Hypothermia

She had never expected to fall in love with someone as sly and cruel and twisted as Leonard Snart. In fact, she'd never expected to fall in love with anyone at all…not after everything she had been through. Not after being resurrected from the dead, and the bloodlust had raged through her, turning her into a monster and removing what little sense of humanity she'd had left.

But then Rip Hunter came, and whisked her and a bunch of strangers away on a magical, albeit rather ludicrous and traumatic, trip through time and space to defeat an immortal tyrant by the name of Vandal Savage, all the while encountering evil like no other, from the past and future…and even from other worlds. Before Sara Lance knew it, nearly three years had passed since she'd decided to sign up for this dangerous adventure, two of which had been spent trapped in the fifties…the rest of the time spent getting to know her team. Or, more specifically, Snart, and his partner, Mick.

They were an odd pair. Sara remembered wondering initially why on earth someone clever enough to be a Time Master – whatever that actually was – would even consider recruiting a couple of petty criminals to help him stop what appeared to be the equivalent of Lord Voldemort from the future. They were thieves…just a pair of crooks from Central City who'd broken out of prison and spent their time doing nothing but robbing banks, looking out only for their own selfish gain. What good would they do on a mission to prevent an evil dictator rising to power, when that was pretty much what they seemed to aspire to do themselves?

Nevertheless, Sara was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. She even suggested going drinking with the pair of them on their first mission, which Snart responded to enthusiastically; praising her for her excellent idea, he led the way to the nearest seventies' bar they could find, and Mick selected a song from the jukebox that he had no idea would later make Sara feel empty inside.

'You wanna dance, Leonard?' she asked Snart, raising her eyebrows at him and trying to read through that strange, cold-hearted persona of his as 'Love Will Keep Us Together' blared out through the crackly speaker.

But Snart grinned right back at her. 'You go right ahead. I'll watch,' he replied in a drawling voice, holding out his hand for her beer bottle.

'Suit yourself,' Sara said, shrugging as she handed him his drink, and she wandered over to the empty space on the floor, shaking her hips in time to the catchy song and smiling at the feel of Snart's eyes on her.

They had already established merely an hour or so ago that Snart found her attractive, but that was not a problem for her. It only made her more aware to stay away from him, and she had rebuffed his attempts to make conversation with her as they explored the ship that would soon become their home, accusing him of staring at her. Of course, as she danced and got into a bar fight on their first trip out together, she knew he was still staring at her. He hadn't been put off by her clear disinterest. In fact, there was something more in his gaze that told her he didn't just find her hot; he looked almost admiring, maybe even impressed by her skills as a fighter.

And so their mission properly began, with Snart agreeing with Sara's encouraging pronouncement to the team that they all had the power to change their own fate and become Legends, for better or for worse, and as time went on, a mutual respect was formed between the two of them. Yes, he was still selfish and looked out only for opportunities to gain some extra money or jewels, and he still made eyes at Sara occasionally as he leaned across the table to pull that rare smile of his whenever she was talking…but he slowly became less cruel…less cold.

And then Russia happened. Russia, where Snart left Sara to get on with her task of killing Stein so that he could save his partner Mick, only to rush back and tell her to stop.

'Sara, don't do it,' he urged desperately over the coms.

'I have to,' Sara protested, her finger trembling as it rested beside the trigger. 'To save the city.'

'That's how a killer thinks. And that's not you anymore,' Snart said fiercely, and it was perhaps how uncharacteristic this was of him that made her stop and embrace the impact of what he had just said…and she lowered her gun.

From that moment on, Sara's opinion of Snart changed. He wasn't the Captain Cold she'd heard about, the evil selfish criminal who killed anyone who got in his way. He was Leonard Snart, the abused man who'd got in with the wrong crowd and been brought up by the wrong people, but was now slowly learning to not let his past define him. He was clever, unbelievably clever, he could be thoughtful (on the rare occasion), and he was witty – perhaps too sarcastic, maybe – but, still, he made her smile now. And it was a rare thing to see Sara smile nowadays.

Sara even discovered a side of Leonard that was somewhat normal; he liked to play cards. One day the two of them played a game of Gin with his pack that he'd brought along, and they bonded, almost as if they were two normal people, with no traumatic past and no scarring memories to make them fear connecting with another person. Thus a tradition was formed, and whenever Rip was in a particularly defeated mood and their mission came to a temporary stand-still, Sara spent most of her free time with Leonard, playing cards. Their time alone together became more frequent, particularly during Leonard and Mick's temporary fall-out – though Leonard brushed everything off as fine when Sara enquired about the current state of their friendship. This was the problem with Leonard; he never liked to open up about how he was feeling, even when around Sara, someone he could talk to more easily than anyone else on this ship, without Mick in the picture. It was something he would later come to regret, though he did not yet know it himself.

One day during that lonely period when Mick crossed over to the dark side, various circumstances involving a space-pirate invasion (yes, a space-pirate invasion) found Sara and Leonard marooned together in a lonely corner of the ship, trapped inside the engine room due to a dangerous hole in the outer wall that they had tried unsuccessfully to fix. With nothing to do apart from wait to see if the rest of the team could get them out before they froze to death, Sara and Leonard ended up sat down on the floor beside each other, shivering and hugging their knees as the room gradually got colder and colder. They'd been quiet for a while…after all, what were you supposed to say to someone you barely considered a friend when waiting to die? But eventually Sara could bare the silence no longer; she needed to distract herself from her desperate panicked thoughts that the team wouldn't be able to rescue them in time.

'I suppose this is like a day at the beach for you,' she muttered, teeth chattering, as the clouds from their breath filled the icy room.

'If I had to pick a way to die, freezing wouldn't be the worst. What's it like…dying?' Leonard asked, genuine curiosity in his harsh, drawling voice as he turned to gaze at her with that familiar smouldering look of his. 'I imagine you've got a unique perspective.'

Sara considered his question for a moment. 'Y'know, it's funny…I mean, you'd expect it to be…terrifying…just panic and…fear…'

'What'd you feel?' Leonard's voice was quieter, almost softer when he spoke, the sharpness of it quite gone; it stunned Sara into speaking more honestly about the experience than she had ever done before.

'I guess, lonely? Yeah…like everybody I loved was a million miles away,' Sara replied thoughtfully, a sad tone to her voice. 'I mean, I don't like you, but…at least I'm not dying alone.'

Leonard smiled slightly, impressed that she could make a joke in a situation as serious as this…but then again, Sara wasn't exactly a stranger to multiple near-death experiences. He tilted his head away slightly, feeling that it was only fair that he should speak up about his own experience now…but he didn't want to look at her while he spoke. He didn't want to see the pity in her eyes, or the surprise that he actually had a heart when it came to certain memories from his past.

'The closest I ever came to dying was, err…the day I met Mick.'

Sara raised her eyebrows. 'Why does that not surprise me?' she murmured, a hint of a smile on her face.

'No, it wasn't like that. It was my first day in juvie, I was fourteen and the smallest kid in there by far. Some of the older kids wanted to make sure I knew it,' Leonard said, and he paused, wondering whether to go on; Sara could tell it was costing him a great deal of effort to say this. 'So they jumped me. I fought back, but…one of them had a shiv…and I figured that was it. Until Mick stepped in.'

He looked at Sara, who was rapt with attention, taking in every word, almost as if making the most of this vulnerable Leonard who was opening up to her, a version of Leonard she'd never even known existed. It surprised him that it didn't make him feel hurt or ashamed to be letting the curtain fall…to let her see past the cold-hearted act that had once been true but was now just a façade.

'And they didn't mess with me after that,' Leonard went on, looking away from her. 'He's been standing up for me ever since.'

There was a silence as they dwelled on this, during which Leonard realised he'd never spoken about this to anyone before. Sara sighed; Leonard's story had moved her so much into forgetting that they were trapped in a freezing cold room, but now she could feel the temperature biting at her icy cheeks. It was starting to get painful.

'Let's just hope he's standing up for Rip and Jax now,' Sara said bracingly.

'Who else is going to take on those pirates?' Leonard pointed out, though he didn't sound as confident as he wanted to.

Sara then leapt to her feet, and Leonard stared up at her in alarm as she began to pace up and down before him, fiercely rubbing her arms.

'We can't just sit here, we need to move around,' Sara said in explanation, 'it's the only way to keep warm.'

'There are other ways to keep warm, y'know,' Leonard said suggestively, and Sara rolled her eyes; the old Leonard was back.

'Really?' she said sceptically, and he smirked. 'Hitting on me now? Here?'

'Sara, there's no point in walking up and down. There's nothing we can do now until the team gets us out,' Leonard said, his loud drawl echoing around the icy room.

Sara groaned loudly as she flumped back down onto the floor, on Leonard's other side. There were tiny icicles in the front strands of her hair now, and she could see frost beginning to form over Leonard's prominent eyebrows. Shaking vigorously now, Sara curled up, trying to fight the agony of the freezing temperature piercing at them.

'Take my jacket.'

Sara looked up at Leonard, stunned to see that he was taking off his black leather jacket. 'I'm not a weak little girl, Snart, I think I can handle the cold.'

'Not as well as me, c'mon, you've hardly got anything on,' Leonard insisted, indicating her skimpy little burgundy top that clung to her skin, and he smiled. 'I like the cold, anyway. Take it.'

'I'm fine,' she muttered through gritted teeth, as she shivered violently.

Sara could practically hear the roll of his eyes as Leonard groaned irritably and draped his jacket around her shoulders. She sighed in relief as she wrapped the jacket more firmly around herself, rubbing her shoulders agitatedly.

'Thanks,' she mumbled grudgingly.

'Anytime.' Even despite the likelihood of imminent death within the next ten or so minutes, he still sounded amused.

Time passed. Still, they heard nothing from the rest of the team, and the room was continuing to get colder and colder…so beyond freezing that it was incomprehensible. Even Leonard was struggling to cope with it now.

'Nothing quite like dying to make you think of all the mistakes, all the wrong choices…' Leonard muttered, shaking with the cold as he hugged himself tightly.

'Is this L-Leonard Snart coming to God in his final moments?' Sara asked through chattering teeth, smiling in surprise.

'Hardly,' Leonard replied, a soft laugh escaping his mouth as he rubbed his hands desperately together. 'I just…wish I could take a few things back. Should have left Mick back in Future Star City.'

'Why didn't you?'

Leonard shrugged, considering her question for a moment. 'Without me to keep him in check…Mick can be a scary guy,' he replied, trying to keep his breathing steady as they both shivered violently beside each other.

'Agreed. I hate to break it to you, but…even if we make it out of here alive…you're still gonna have a problem on your hands,' Sara said warningly, drawing her breaths in great, shuddering gasps. 'I've seen enough…to know that Mick's in a dark place…and he's not coming back.'

And then, unable to help herself, she grabbed his arm and leant up to him, needing to feel the warmth of someone's presence, to stop her from shivering. Leonard hesitated for a moment and turned his head away slightly while he adjusted his arm to let her cuddle up to him. In spite of his flirtatious comment about keeping warm earlier, Leonard was not a fan of any kind of physical closeness or intimacy. Perhaps that was because he associated any kind of touching with the abuse he'd suffered from at the hands of his father. Leonard had never had a proper relationship, or even gone as far as hugging anyone, as a result of that. He'd never held anyone before…and he'd never felt left out of that experience. He'd never wanted any of that. Until right now, as Sara clutched onto his arm desperately, her head leant against his shoulder as she shivered against him.

And so it was with difficulty that Leonard, shaking alongside her, slowly removed his arm from Sara's hold and instead wrapped it tentatively around her, drawing her closer to him. He felt her sigh in comfort as his arms held her protectively, and leaned against his chest, both of them still shivering painfully from the cold, but at least they had each other. Leonard wondered when the last time was that Sara had been this close with someone, and it was as she squeezed him he realised that Sara had been feeling lonely since the moment she'd died, even after she'd been resurrected and reunited with her loved ones. They were both lonely and were in unfamiliar territory. And they were dying. Again. But they were together, and Leonard was holding this beautiful, fierce woman who he now realised was far more than just a crush as she held him back desperately…and right now, that was all that mattered. 

* * *

The team rescued them from the freezing engine room just in time. It was with some reluctance that Leonard and Sara let go of each other, for what excuse would they have to ever hold someone like that for a while? They had more pressing problems to attend to, however, the main one being Mick's betrayal. He had crossed over to the side of the space pirates, and began to fight them for the Waverider. Leonard didn't want to hurt Mick, but when he saw Mick chase after Sara to burn her with his gun, he knew he had no choice, so shot him with his cold gun. And then came the team's decision that something had to be done about Mick…something permanent, to keep them all from danger. Leonard knew what he had to do. He just didn't know if he had the strength to do it.

Sara alone out of everyone on the ship seemed to understand how painful this was for Leonard. Though the others were sympathetic, they still saw Leonard to be the same heartless, murderous criminal who'd robbed practically everywhere in Central City. They didn't think he cared enough about disposing of someone, whether it was his partner or not. But Sara knew different. After their conversation while they had been freezing to death, she felt like he was a different person altogether.

Not long after Mick had been 'taken care of' and the Waverider had set off for their next destination, Sara went over to Leonard's personal quarters to see how he was doing. He was slouched on his bed – there was a rarely a time when he wasn't draping himself over furniture – and was staring up at the ceiling, looking troubled. When Sara tapped on the open door, he turned his head and raised his eyebrows at her in surprise; they hadn't crossed the bedroom territory before now. Of course though, no matter how much he would try to deny it to himself, today had brought them closer. In fact, they could perhaps even consider each other friends.

'You saved me today,' Sara said, leaning against the wall in the doorway. 'Mick was gonna kill me, but…you shot him. I know that must have been hard for you…to choose to do that, to Mick. So…thank you.'

'All right, let's not make a song and dance about it,' Leonard said with a roll of his eyes, sitting up straight in his bed.

'Are you okay?' Sara asked, concerned.

He shrugged casually. 'Peachy.'

'You just killed your best friend,' Sara said accusingly, frowning as she stepped into the room. 'The guy who saved you in juvie, the guy who's always been there for you…your partner. And you killed him. To save a bunch of people you hardly know.'

'Your point?'

'My point is it's a load of crap,' Sara said firmly, and Leonard eyed her with pleasant surprise. 'The rest of the team might believe your story that you "took care" of Mick, but I don't buy it. I know you. You're loyal to Mick and Mick only, you would _not_ kill him for us. And you're not the same criminal you were who killed people just for the sake of it. You're different now. So what did you do to him? If you lie to me I'll cut up your parka.'

Sara immediately regretted the feeble choice of a threat, something Leonard could see in her eyes, and he smirked at her. 'I don't wear that anymore, so feel free.'

'I rest my case. You're fed up of being evil Captain Cold, aren't you?' Sara said in a self-satisfied way, and he closed his eyes, in denial. 'So talk to me. What did you do to Mick?'

Leonard considered her for a moment, then sighed, realising there was no point in keeping it from her; and besides, he felt he could trust her and her alone to keep it their secret. 'I left him there. In the woods,' he admitted, his voice deeper and quieter than usual. 'I knocked him out, and I left him.'

Sara nodded slowly. 'And then what? You're going to go get him back when this is all over?' she asked sceptically, and Leonard smiled slyly at her.

'You _do_ know me, don't you?'

He was almost impressed…but he so hated letting people in. Mainly because he wasn't used to it. The only person he had ever let in was his sister, Lisa. The only person he ever cared about. Only that wasn't exactly true anymore. He cared about Mick. He'd even started to care about Barry, back in Central City. And looking at those pursed red lips, the sparkling glint in her eyes, the long flowing blonde hair…he knew he was starting to care about Sara way more than he should.

'This isn't going to work, you know. Something will go wrong,' Sara said forebodingly, as Leonard got up of his bed and walked past her towards the doorway. 'He'll come back!''

But Leonard stopped walking and spun round to face her irritably. 'What would you have done, then?' he spat, his voice back to its usual harsh tone. 'Would _you_ have killed him?'

There was a moment of silence as Sara stared fiercely back at him, maintaining her ground, and Leonard breathed angrily, his eyebrows set in that frown that seemed almost permanent. He was so hard to read…he was so closed off to the rest of the world. It made Sara almost pity him, if it wasn't for the agonised glare he was unfairly giving her.

'You know I wouldn't,' she murmured. 'You stopped me being that person.'

'Well stop trying to change me into whatever kind of person you expect me to be,' Leonard muttered darkly, and he turned away from her as he strode out of his room. 'I've said it before – I'm not interested in being the good guy. Don't expect that to ever change.'

Oh, but how wrong he was.


	2. The Day The Time Masters Came

It was two years later when Sara and Leonard next had a proper conversation with each other; Sara, Ray and Kendra had been abandoned in the nineteen-fifties, and Sara had gone back to revisit her ruthless past at Nanda Parbat. She had expected that the Legends would never return, that she would be trapped in the past for the rest of her life. But she was wrong; the rest of the team, Ray and Kendra included, came back for her. She tried to refuse them and abide by the rules of the League of Assassins by turning them in, but she realised that she couldn't, when Kendra made her see sense. And then Leonard turned up, panting and in clear agony in the doorway, his hand gone and his face contorted in pain and rage as he ordered everyone to not kill Chronos, the soldier from the Time Masters who had been hunting them down since the beginning to kill them…and who also turned out to be Mick, his partner who had not been abandoned as efficiently as Leonard had thought.

It was seeing Leonard and the rest of her loyal team that made Sara see sense. After being granted permission to leave the League of Assassins, she returned to the Waverider and it was almost as if she had never left. It was strange, though; for Leonard, it had barely been a day since he'd last seen her, whereas for Sara it had been just over two years. She found it hard to resume their playful banter and regular games of cards, though forced herself to make more of an effort with him when she realised that Leonard was distancing himself from everyone, perhaps due to the fact that his treacherous partner was locked up like a prisoner.

Not long after the team had decided to give Mick a chance at redeeming himself, Sara found Leonard sat alone on the floor in the cargo bay, bouncing a ball up and down. He'd taken to hanging out in secluded areas of the ship recently, to avoid everyone. But she didn't care; she strolled purposefully into the room, her mind set on what needed to be said.

Leonard didn't need to turn around to see who it was. It was always Sara. She was the only one who ever sought him out to talk to. Even after all that time away, back in the darkness of Nanda Parbat…she still couldn't forget about him.

'No luck finding our homicidal captain?' he greeted, keeping his eye on the ball he was bouncing; they'd been having an additional problem of Rip flying off with Vandal Savage's child mentee in order to kill him and prevent him from becoming a murderous dictator, thus enabling Savage to rise to power.

'Gideon's still searching, but…I've got a feeling Rip's not gonna be found if he doesn't want to be,' Sara said heavily, walking over to the opposite side of the cargo bay and leaning against a stack of crates.

'So what are you doing down here?' he asked lazily, his tone already indicating that he found her motives totally pointless and predictable.

Sara eyed him in amusement, a sly smile on her face as she considered him; she'd forgotten how stubborn and straight to the point he could be. 'Don't you think you at least owe him a conversation?' she said, almost exasperatedly.

Leonard didn't need to ask who she was talking about. 'We had our conversation while he was Chronos,' he replied irritably, frowning up at her, 'and he made his feelings about me very clear.'

'And what about _your_ feelings?' Sara persisted, wanting him to open up to her again.

'About you?'

He said it so casually, so matter-of-factly, that it took a moment for Sara to register the words, but she brushed it off by returning his playful smile, trying to ignore the sudden tingly feeling in her stomach

'About Mick,' she clarified with a grin, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

Realising that flirting was off the agenda, Leonard's smile faded and he looked down. 'I don't have any feelings about Mick,' he said firmly, his tone harsh again.

Sara tilted her head at him, trying to work out what was going through that conflicted mind of his. Sighing, she slid down the crates and squatted down opposite him, so she was on his level. He looked up at her, almost touched that she cared enough to talk to him about something as feeble as his differences with Mick. Almost.

'Look, it didn't seem that way when we were dying in the engine room of hypothermia,' she pointed out, and Leonard's lips twitched slightly, pleasantly surprised that she still remembered what he had told her about Mick, despite it being so long ago for her.

'Look, if you want to ease your guilty conscience, that's your business,' Leonard said waspishly, and Sara narrowed her eyes at him. 'But he's still the same son of a bitch he was when you all wanted me to put him down.'

Sara frowned at his accusative tone. 'I wasn't the one who mentioned marooning Rory – _you_ did. It's obviously still weighing on your conscience,' she said irritably, and as he stared at her trying but failing to come up with a witty comeback, she got back up to her feet. 'So…stop being an ass, and go deal with it.'

Leonard gave the ball once last bounce as she left the room, and realised that, as much as he hated to admit it, she was right. He chuckled to himself; she was practically becoming like his wife. This amusing concept was only further reinforced when he next saw her half an hour later as he walked past the open doorway of her personal quarters, his face bruised and bleeding profusely after going to have a heart to heart with Mick.

'Snart?! What the actual hell?' Sara demanded, springing up from her bed, seizing him angrily from the corridor and dragging him into her room. 'I said talk to him, not ask him to kill you!'

'I _did_ talk to him, we settled things fair and square,' Leonard said airily, wiping his dripping mouth casually. 'And now he's willing to talk to the rest of us about the Time Master's plans so-'

'Ugh, forget about that now, get in here,' Sara cut over him, surprising him into silence by pushing him onto her bed, and he raised a bruised eyebrow at her. 'There's a first aid kit somewhere…'

She spent the next five or so minutes washing Leonard's face, dabbing at his bruises and cuts with wet cloths; the bleeding eventually stopped but there was still a great deal of swelling, and she was worried the cuts would begin to scar. Despite her insistence, he refused to go and get proper treatment at the medical bay, even though he knew it would mean his face would be as fresh and clean as new. It was almost as if he wanted the cuts and bruises to stay, as a mark of what he had done to earn them.

'Of all the reasons I'd want you to be this close to my face, having my blood cleaned up isn't one of them,' Leonard said coolly, a slight smirk on his face as he gazed up at her while she dabbed carefully at his swollen black eye.

But Sara was too annoyed to flirt back. 'You know that was really stupid of you. He could have beaten you to death.'

'I wanted to give him the option.'

'Why? Because you felt bad you left him behind?' she said sceptically. 'You did that to save us, Leonard, it was a good thing. He'd understand.'

'I don't do good things, particularly when it means betraying my partner. Mick's my priority. And I went against him,' Leonard muttered, avoiding her gaze as she began to dab the wet cloth on another cut on his cheekbone, but this time more gently.

'Are you saying you wish you'd let him stay on the ship? When he would have happily killed us all?' Sara murmured, disappointed.

'I'm saying I wish we'd never got caught up in this mess in the first place,' Leonard snapped. 'We should never have said yes to Rip.'

Sara frowned at him. 'You don't mean that.'

'I think I know my own mind, Sara.'

'Well I think you're in denial that there's a part of you that wants to do good in the world,' Sara said firmly, then she straightened up as she took the cloth away from his face, which still looked hideous but at least the continuous bleeding had stopped. 'There, all done. See, my work as a nurse in the fifties must have paid off a little bit.'

'I thought you spent more time at that hospital hooking up with the blonde chick than doing actual nursing,' Leonard noted slyly, straightening up on her bed as he watched her pack the first aid kit away.

She wiggled her eyebrows teasingly at him. 'Jealous, Snart?'

'I don't get jealous.'

'Oh, of course, I forgot,' Sara said sardonically, frustrated by his bluntness. 'You and Mick don't do feelings, do you? You have empty hearts. Nothing there at all.'

This time it was Leonard's turn to smile. 'Why do I get the impression you don't believe that?'

'Because I know that no matter how much we let the darkness take over us…there's nothing that can stop us feeling something in here, whether you're a crook or not,' Sara said softly, lightly prodding his chest where his heart began to beat faster. 'I mean look at me, I'm the assassin, and even _I_ still have feelings.'

'Do you?'

And there it was again, that smouldering look in his eyes that he reserved only for her. Even with one of his eyes black, swollen and bloody, she still couldn't help finding Leonard attractive when he was looking at her like that. Maybe it was the half-smile that did it. But she turned away firmly; she couldn't let herself fall for it…for him.

'C'mon, the others will be wondering where we are. Besides, we need to hear what Mick has to say,' Sara said firmly, and she led the way briskly out of her room, Leonard following close behind her with an amused smirk on his face.

* * *

Time passed, in every way that was possible. Eventually, Leonard and Mick worked past their disagreement; it certainly seemed that their brutal fight in Mick's cell had helped set matters straight, whether everyone else disapproved of it or not. Sara began to bond with Kendra, someone she hadn't really connected to until their duel at Nanda Parbat…the duel that had made Sara remember who she really was. And inevitably, despite trying not to get too attached, Sara and Leonard found themselves more in each other's company than ever before, even getting to that stage of comfort where they could lean up against each other and cook together and get drunk and hang out in each other's rooms without it seeming odd. It was natural for them now.

The team flew from one period of time to the next, until at last they captured Savage and held him prisoner on the Waverider. Sara and Leonard shared a drink to celebrate, though of course their victory was short-lived when the Time Masters came to arrest everyone from the ship moments after Rip had left to hand over Vandal Savage to the Time Council at the Vanishing Point. Sara and Leonard had been in the middle of a game of cards in her room, as usual, when a distant bang from the other end of the ship made Leonard's head jerk up.

'Did you hear that?' he asked sharply, as he leant casually on the side of her bed.

'Don't try to distract me,' Sara said warningly, taking a card from the pile as she eyed him suspiciously, still having not forgotten their previous game when he had tried to cheat.

But Leonard frowned as more sounds of movement reached his ears, and he slowly got up from the bed. 'We need to find somewhere to hide.'

'Why do we need to find somewhere to hide?' Sara asked curiously, as Leonard crossed the room to press his ear against the shut door.

'Alexa,' he replied in a sinister whisper.

Sara looked confused as she got up of the bed and joined him by the door. 'Excuse me?'

'A job Mick and I had, when I got a bad feeling,' Leonard explained, listening intently at the door. 'Listen – there's people on this ship who shouldn't be. C'mon.'

He swiped his hand across the button to open the door. Grabbing her jacket and tying her hair back quickly into a ponytail, Sara followed Leonard cautiously out onto the corridor. He was right; those were the undoubtable sounds of soldier's footsteps nearby, searching the ship. Beckoning her forward, Leonard led the way back to bridge. The rest of the team were missing.

'Wait, have they been captured?' Sara whispered anxiously. 'We need to go back and help them-!'

But Leonard slammed his hand over Sara's mouth to silence her. 'The only thing we need to do now is get away from those Time Bastards, or else we'll all be goners! C'mon.'

He led the way up the steps into the captain's office and, to Sara's astonishment, pulled up a tile from the floor. She peered down the small gap in the floor, conveniently big enough to just about fit two people in, and looked up at Leonard in alarm.

'No time, get down there,' he urged, as the heavy footsteps drew closer; the soldiers were approaching.

He pushed Sara forward and she scrambled down the hole in the floor; Leonard followed awkwardly and quietly pulled the floor tile back down. He blinked rather rapidly as they were surrounded in darkness; all they could see was from the light emitting from his cold gun attached to Leonard's tight-fitting jeans that Sara had been trying but failing not to admire for a while now. Feeling the warmth of Sara's breath on him, Leonard gazed almost seductively down at the dark outline of her face, aware that they had never been in such close proximity before, and in such a tight, enclosed space as well. Of all the places to hide on the Waverider, this had definitely been the best choice.

'Well, this is cosy,' Sara noted with a wiggle of her eyebrows, and Leonard's lips twitched. 'Who'd have thought Rip would have a trap door on his ship?'

But Leonard abruptly pressed a finger to her lips to shush her; the soldiers had entered the bridge above them. They listened with baited breath as the soldiers roughly tossed items aside and searched the bride and captain's office, passing orders between them. It was only when one of the soldiers commented that Savage had ordered them to return by a certain time that they finally gave up and left, giving the bridge one final sweep. Sara looked at Leonard in horror.

'Savage?!' she whispered.

'The Time Masters must be working with him,' he muttered with a frown, his tone angry.

They waited in silence until the banging and footsteps had long faded away, and it was clear that they were the only two left on the Waverider. Eventually, Leonard stretched up to open up the tile in the floor; checking that the coast was clear, he then climbed out back up onto the floor of the captain's office, leaving the tile open for Sara to follow.

'How did you even know that was down there?' Sara asked him, sounding half-impressed, half-dumbfounded as she stepped out into the bridge.

Leonard fixed the tile in the floor back into place. 'When Rip first recruited us, I made it my business to case every square inch of this tub in the event there was something worth stealing,' he explained, as Sara paced around anxiously, biting her fingernails. 'There wasn't. Let's get outta here.'

Sara frowned at him as he strode purposefully over to the seats in the centre. 'Wait, what about the team?' she frowned incredulously, holding her hands out.

'There's nothing more we can do for them,' Leonard said simply, not looking at her.

'You're just gonna leave Mick?' Sara asked sceptically; she knew he didn't care much about the rest of their crewmates, but she also knew he couldn't abandon his partner, not after everything they had been through on this mission.

Impatient and irritable, Leonard turned around to frown at her. 'If the Time Masters are half as twisted as Mick said, there's an excellent chance Mick is no longer Mick. Now _why_ aren't we flying yet?' he demanded, gesturing his hand towards the captain's seat.

'Because I'm not going _anywhere_ ,' Sara said firmly, marching towards him. 'And even if we wanted to, we're in a hangar surrounded by an entire armada of time-ships.'

'It's the Waverider, we've got guns!' Leonard said encouragingly, holding his hands out to indicate the ship. 'We can blast our way out!'

'This isn't Bonnie and Clyde,' Sara protested, glaring at him. 'And I'm not going anywhere without the rest of the team.'

At this, Leonard had had enough; with a swift motion he pulled out his cold gun and pointed it directly at Sara, the bright light shining threateningly at her as the familiar sound of its power loading up pierced her ears. Sara backed away in shock, hurt as she stared into the angry eyes of someone she'd thought was her closest friend.

'Maybe I didn't make myself clear,' Leonard snarled menacingly, frowning at her with hatred and anger in his eyes that she had seen before.

But Sara stood her ground. 'Don't do that,' she said sharply, glaring back at him with not just anger, but disappointment. 'Don't act like you're that same cold-hearted bastard that I first met.'

Leonard's nostrils flared as he continued to stare at her furiously, the hand holding the gun twitching slightly as he pointed it determinedly at her face.

'I remember Russia,' Sara went on firmly, his voice softly saying, _'Sara, don't do it'_ ringing through her mind; could this really be the same person stood in front of her and threatening her life right now? 'And _you_ were the one who told me not to kill Stein.'

'Yeah, because you seem to have a problem with being a killer. I, however, don't.' He spat the last word, his frown set and his hand steadier now.

Sara's eyes narrowed further as she considered him, the determined, terrifying look of an angry, dangerous man intending to kill, the look of Captain Cold that terrified everyone away…apart from Sara and Mick. Pursing her lips, she took a few steps closer towards the gun.

'Prove it,' she said challengingly, and the arm pointing the gun faltered as Leonard took a slight step back. 'Shoot me.'

Pride and anger was all that kept him glaring back at her, at the wonderful woman who wasn't scared by him, the woman who he was beginning to fall for and yet was now ruining any chance he ever had with her. Sara stared determinedly back into his eyes, any fear concealed in her stony face as the gun shone directly at it. Leonard's frowning face was twisted in an agonised rage as his trembling finger rested on the trigger…and got ready to shoot.


	3. Me and You

He took his finger off the trigger just as the phone began to ring, but still, the two maintained their fierce eye contact, both of them daring each other to break it, and Sara still glaring at Leonard without knowing that he had already given up trying to make his point. Grateful for a reason to stop the tense staring contest, Leonard awkwardly glanced to the side, towards the sound of the ringing. Sara did the same, and, throwing Leonard one last filthy look, she followed the sound to the old-fashioned telephone receiver propped up on Rip's table. Leonard reluctantly lowered his gun as she stared apprehensively at the phone, his angry frown seeming to be permanently etched on his face.

Sara picked up the phone, glancing over at Leonard, who was watching her carefully. 'Hello?' Sara murmured in a low voice to the phone, not taking her eyes off Leonard.

'Hello, Miss Lance.'

Sara felt almost like laughing at the sound of the familiar, cool female voice. 'Gideon, you're alive!'

'If, by being alive, you mean that my operating system is intact, yes,' Gideon's voice clarified, as Leonard strolled up to Sara coolly. 'I was able to load into the latency chord to avoid being wiped out when the Time Masters-'

'We can share war stories later,' Sara interrupted impatiently, glancing up at Leonard. 'Where's the rest of the team?'

'They're in Cell Block 4587, and they too are alive,' Gideon replied.

From the look in Leonard's eyes as they met hers, Sara could tell that he'd heard what Gideon had just said, and a hint of a smug smile appeared on Sara's face. She had been right not to leave after all. Of course she had.

'For the moment,' Gideon added.

'Wait, what do you mean "for the moment"?' Sara asked darkly, and a hint of something – was it concern? – crossed Leonard's face as he gave her a questioning look.

'The Time Masters are planning to have Chronos execute them,' Gideon explained, her tone empty of expression as always.

'Wait, there is no Chronos,' Sara said, confused, but then her heart sank and her gaze was pitiful as she turned to Leonard. 'Oh my God…they've brainwashed him again. Leonard, I'm sorry.'

'You're not the one who needs to be sorry,' Leonard said bluntly, as he shoved his cold gun away in his pocket. 'Now what do you suggest we do to get the others out?'

'"We"?' Sara said sceptically; she'd been presuming she would have to help the others on her own.

She thought she saw a hint of a smile flicker on Leonard's face. 'Only if we hurry up. So Gideon had better come up with something quick before I change my mind,' he said lazily, and Sara's lips twitched as she turned her attention back to the receiver.

'Gideon, what have you got?'

'Well, Miss Lance, it seems I may have a solution.'

* * *

Twenty minutes later found the two of them sat on the floor of the bridge, having just attached Gideon's suggested viruses to the surrounding time-ships in the hangar they were trapped in. They'd been waiting for a while now for the virus to load so that they would be able to escape the hangar and blast their way into the cell where their teammates were being held, but time was of the essence, and patience was certainly not Leonard's speciality; he kept tapping his pinky finger irritably against the floor that he was lounged against, a silver ring gleaming from it as the tapping echoed around the room.

'Just another moment – I'm almost through,' Gideon's voice rang around the bridge.

'Even if this works, we're never gonna be able to fly out of here,' Leonard complained loudly, his crossed legs swinging slightly.

'Well that's the beauty of having a time-ship, we don't have to fly anywhere,' Sara reminded him wearily, fed up with his irritableness.

The tension in the air between them stood out clearly as they waited, Leonard continuing to tap his pinky ring against the floor. Neither of them were going to forget that he had threatened to shoot her earlier, and Leonard couldn't see her Sara forgiving him anytime soon…not that he deserved it. He still wanted to make an effort to get things back to normal, though. He couldn't face that disappointment or loathing in her eyes for much longer.

Sara closed her eyes irritably as he continued tapping. 'Can you…stop doing that?' she snapped, and Leonard immediately snatched his hand away from the floor, like a little child trying to annoy his parent, as she got up to her feet. 'Why did you start wearing that thing anyways?'

'It's from the first job I ever pulled off with Mick,' Leonard replied, watching her admiringly as she walked over to the main console table in the centre of the bridge. 'Freeport Warehouse…'

'Aw, you do have a sentimental side,' Sara said teasingly, flashing him a slight smile as she grabbed her tablet from the table.

But Leonard resented this insinuation. 'It's not a keepsake. It's a reminder.'

'Of what?'

Leonard uncrossed his legs and sat up. 'That even the best-laid plans can go sideways,' he explained harshly, a bitter smile on his face as he stood up and slowly began to walk towards her. 'Spent a lot of time prepping for that heist. Casing the target…memorising shift changes and delivery schedules and then – surprise – turns out they'd upgraded their security system. We had to bolt.'

By this time, he'd leant down to rest his arms on the console table so that he was on her level, as he always did with Sara, and had a flirtatious glint in his eyes as he smiled across at her. In spite of herself, Sara couldn't help smiling back, amused at the story of his failure; she knew it took a lot of effort for him to admit to something that he had contrived not going to his accord.

'Three weeks of planning…and all I have to show for it…' Leonard said bitterly, wiggling his hand on the table as he stared down at the ring.

'Was a lousy pinky ring,' Sara finished for him sardonically, reaching across the table and taking a gentle hold of his finger to admire the ring; Leonard glanced up at her, surprised by the casual touch, but she just smiled amusedly back at him as she let go. 'So sad.'

'Considering I'm about to trade my life for nothing…I think I came out ahead,' Leonard said playfully, his eyes smouldering as he fixed his gaze with Sara's, and there was a short silence in which the two of them simply just smiled at each other, Sara clearly more caught up in his charms than she liked to let on…

But then the moment was broken by the sound of the Waverider's engines whirring to life.

'The Time Drive is back online,' Gideon announced; Sara and Leonard dropped their gaze from each other and turned away to go to their allocated seats.

'Strap in,' Sara said apprehensively, taking her new place in the captain's seat at the front; Leonard obliged, and turned to watch her, impressed, as she took control of the Waverider and they set off.

The viruses they'd planted on the surrounding time-ships kicked in just as they flew out of the hangar; all the ships' computers shut down their systems and instead began to play Captain & Tenille's classic number, 'Love Will Keep Us Together'. Leonard had chosen the song himself when they'd helped Gideon create the virus, as it reminded him of the amusing bar fight Sara had started back on their first trip out together in the seventies.

Leonard ordered Sara to stay on the Waverider before venturing out to rescue the others from their prison cell; he claimed it was because a good captain should never leave their ship, but in truth he just wanted her to be safe. He felt he owed her that after what he had put her through earlier with his blasted cold gun.

Chronos turned out to still be Mick – the brainwashing had failed to work this time – and together the pair of crooks got past the Time Masters and managed to retrieve their teammates. It was only when they'd all managed to get back to the Waverider and escape the Vanishing Point that Leonard and Sara were updated on what the problem was. The Time Masters had been assisting Vandal Savage's rise to power, and were using a secret weapon known as the Oculus to manipulate all of time; they had been using this device to control the whole team's actions from day one. So, Ray suggested that the team try to take out the Oculus, in order to gain back their free will and stop the Time Masters and Vandal Savage once and for all.

Leonard raised his eyebrows sceptically at this idea as he walked over to the team. 'This is madness. I like it,' Leonard said, flashing a playful smile to Sara, which she returned.

And so, their plan was set. Rip allowed them all some free time to recover and prepare before they set off back to the Vanishing Point to try and destroy the Oculus; Leonard decided to spend that time making amends with Sara. He wandered casually over to her personal quarters, his deck of cards in his hands, and found her lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling. She glanced over at him as Leonard leant against the wall of the open doorway and wiggled the cards in front of her hopefully.

Sara looked away. 'Not in the mood,' she said dismissively.

Leonard held the cards down and looked away in defeat, smiling slightly; this wasn't going to be easy. 'Was gonna apologise for pulling a gun on you,' he admitted, and if it was in any way painful for him to say this, he hid it well. 'But apparently I was just following a script.'

'Doesn't make you any less of a jerk,' Sara said, still not looking at him, as she fiddled moodily with her rings; she almost reminded him of a grumpy girlfriend who was too stubborn to make up with her boyfriend.

Leonard hesitated for a moment. 'Guilty,' he confessed finally, a grim smile on his face; he hated admitting when he was wrong, and it was only when he was around Sara that he could bring himself to do it. 'So what do we think of Rip's plan?'

At this, Sara turned to face him. 'Does it matter?' she muttered, almost bitterly; he gave her a questioning look and she sat up on her bed. 'Apparently everything we're going to do has already been pre-determined by Rip's former bosses.'

'It's funny, I've always prided myself in being the guy who doesn't play by the rules,' Leonard said, his voice even more drawling than usual as he kept his eyes on Sara. 'Come to find out…I'm the one being played.'

'I don't know,' Sara said thoughtfully, an almost sad tone to her voice. 'I still feel responsible for everything I've done. And it still keeps me up at night.'

'It's the things I didn't do that keep me up at night,' Leonard said, giving her a wiggle of his eyebrows as he walked slowly across the room towards her bed, and his heart rate began to quicken.

'What's that?' Sara asked.

'Oh, I dunno…' Leonard said in a would-be casual voice, as he leant against her bed beside her. 'If it's being on this ship, travelling through time…I've started to wonder what the future might hold for me.' There was a slight pause. 'And you…'

Sara felt that strange tingly feeling in her stomach again as he slowly turned to fix her with that intense, smouldering gaze of his.

'-And me and you,' he murmured, his voice low and seductive.

There was a moment of silence, a moment in which Sara simply gazed back at him, hardly daring to believe that those words had just come out of his mouth. He gazed firmly back at her, a slight smile on his face, and there was no regret in his eyes, only desire.

Sara tilted her head at him, deciding to play it cool. 'You wanna steal a kiss from me, Leonard?' she asked, leaning towards him with raised eyebrows. 'You'd better be one hell of a thief.'

And with that she slid off her bed and walked away, if only to hide the blush creeping on her face, but she could tell from Leonard's silent yet smirking response that her rejection had not disheartened him; she could practically feel his smouldering eyes and sly smile lingering on her as she left her room. The moment she was out of sight in the corridor, she let out the breath that she'd been holding in since Leonard had spoken those words that had now changed everything between them…' _me and you'_. There was no going back to their normal flirty friendship now…not now he'd crossed that bridge and addressed that there was something more than friendly going on. But it just didn't make sense.

He'd thought about a future with her? Leonard Snart? He'd been kept up at night by the thought of him and her being together?

But there was no time to address this madness – before they knew it, Rip was soon gathering everyone together, ready to go and destroy the Oculus so that they could go and rescue Kendra and Carter from Savage's clutches and finally defeat him. Of course, as always, things didn't go to plan. The team was cornered by the Time Masters and were saved only just in time by Jax, who had returned from 2016 to help his loyal team members. Rip, Ray and Mick hurried off to destroy the Occulus while the others stayed behind to hold off the oncoming army of even more Time Masters coming to prevent them from carrying out their plan. Leonard tried to look out for Sara, but was distracted when Rip came running back to them from the Oculus, unaccompanied.

'We're leaving!' Rip ordered.

'Where's Raymond and Mick?' Leonard demanded, blasting a soldier out of the way with his cold gun as Sara ran up to them both.

'Err…Ray is in my pocket, and Mick has elected to stay.'

'Why?' Leonard yelled, alarmed by the guilty look on Rip's face.

'Someone needs to be present to destroy the Oculus, and Mick has elected himself,' Rip explained, slightly impatiently.

Leonard looked at him for a moment, then, with a barely concealed groan, he tore off back to where Rip had just come from.

'N-no, no, no, you can't, there isn't time!' Rip protested, but he gave up as he saw Sara chase off after Leonard, her face filled with worry.

Sara figured it was then when she knew what Leonard was going to do. She saw it in his expression the moment Rip said that someone needed to be there to destroy the Oculus. Leonard could never let his partner do that. But still she tore off after him in desperation, and went ahead to fight off the approaching Time Masters with her various weapons and guns as Leonard approached Mick, who was stood by the Oculus. By the time she'd fought them off, she turned just in time to hear the slam of Mick's unconscious body as it fell to the floor. Sara ran up to them by the Oculus and looked down to see that Mick had been knocked out, and Leonard's cold gun was resting against him. She felt her heart skip a beat when she saw that Leonard had now taken Mick's place and was holding a gearstick in place at the heart of the Oculus device; it was shining and reverberating threateningly. It was going to blow.

'Get him outta here!' Leonard shouted at her, his face angry but determined.

'No,' Sara protested firmly, though her voice shook because she knew it would be no good.

Leonard glared at her. 'Just do it.'

Sara considered him for a moment, her breathing painfully fast. Leonard was stubborn, she knew that. He wasn't going to change his mind. She could knock him out, perhaps. She couldn't just leave him here to blow up with the rest of the Oculus. But why would he even want to put himself in that position in the first place? This wasn't Leonard Snart. This wasn't the man who'd pulled a gun on her, the man who'd sworn he wasn't interested in being a hero.

Oh, but it was. Like Leonard himself had said, people could change. And Leonard hadn't just changed, he'd grown. He'd grown into someone he could no longer deny himself to be. Someone who was sacrificing his own life to save the others. Someone who Sara suddenly realised she was completely devoted to. But his decision was made; he wasn't going to leave the Oculus. He was already gone.

Eyes watering and full of agony, she strode right up to Leonard, simply just to stare at him, to convey what she was feeling without words. Leonard stared back at her, surprised and unable to think of what to say; he'd expected her to shout and protest, not for her to just gaze right at him like he were some long lost lover. His words from earlier began to play in both their minds… _'I've started to wonder what the future might hold for me…and you…and me and you.'…_ and, looking at him now, with his arms stretched to hold onto the Oculus, Sara was hit with the sudden realisation of something she'd been denying herself for some time.

She was in love with him.

And so she did all she could think of doing, and stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed him, her hand clutching his arm desperately. As her lips crushed his, Leonard rested his forehead against hers and for a moment, just one shining moment, everything was fine…the Oculus in front of them was forgotten about, and all that mattered was those two…he had thought she'd rejected him earlier, but he was wrong, and he hadn't needed to steal a kiss from her at all…for she was the one who had brought their lips together. Reluctantly, they broke apart, for there was no time, and a part of the Oculus exploded behind Sara as she gazed at him, anguished.

As she slowly leaned away and looked into his eyes, taking in every inch of his face – for it would surely be the last time she would see it – she realised there was something different about him. His facial features had softened somehow; his eyebrows were barely arched, his frown lines were no longer visible…his expression was more human than she had ever seen him. And through the pain etched in his eyes, she saw something else there; perhaps pleasant surprise, or wonder at what had just happened…and wonder at what could have been but would now never be. But at least he now knew. He knew that she reciprocated his feelings, and Sara tried to let this come across by simply looking at him, her eyes yearning for him to understand that she had thought about what the future had in store for the two of them together as well…only she was too late to realise it…too late to say it. There wasn't enough time. And his mind was set. Nothing she could do would change that.

Leonard continued to gaze back at her in a moment that seemed much longer than a moment, in which a lot of unspoken words seemed to pass between them, and then the surrounding explosions brought them back to focus. Sara forced herself to withdraw her hand from his arm and she tore her gaze away from his as she left his side and rushed down to deal with the difficult task of heaving Mick's limp, unconscious body away; Leonard's eyes closed in torment as he let Sara go, and it cost it everything he had in him to stop himself from going after her…to stay, resigned, by the Oculus…to where he would soon perish.

Sara didn't look back as she hurriedly dragged Mick and Leonard's cold gun away from the Oculus. She couldn't look back.

Mick began to regain consciousness as they approached the Waverider, but she knocked him out swiftly with Leonard's cold gun before he could do anything. Rip and the others rushed out to help them back onto the ship, but just as the front doors began to close, Sara realised she had made a mistake.

'No! No, we need to go back!' she cried out desperately, her eyes swimming with tears as she tried to push past the team to leave the ship. 'There has to be another way, we can't just let him die!'

'Sara, it's too late, it's his decision,' Ray said in an anguished voice, trying to keep her steady as the engines underneath them roared and the Waverider began to take off. 'There's nothing we can do-'

'No! Take me back!' Sara yelled, the tears falling now as the Waverider soared away from the Vanishing Point. 'We need to go back, right now! No, Leonard-!'

But then the rumble of the explosion reached them just as the Vanishing Point turned into fire; Sara pressed her hands against the window and watched in horror as the force of the Oculus's explosion blew everything to smithereens, leaving nothing but the memory of the look in Leonard's eyes right after she'd kissed him to keep her from letting out the blood-curdling shriek of pain…those beautiful, smouldering eyes that would never look back into hers again.


	4. The Aftermath of The Oculus

'We're all just pawns, Sara. I'm the crook, you're the assassin.'

Sara woke with a sudden jolt, leaping upright from her bed as if she had been electrocuted. Her breathing coming in quick, uncontrollable gasps, she moved over to her dresser to get a glass of water. The glass shook in her hand as she took a sip desperately, and her eyes glanced inevitably at the small metal ring on her finger.

She hadn't dreamed of him in a long time. She wasn't sure how long, maybe six months? Nine? Time seemed to have no meaning to the crewmembers of the Waverider now after so long gallivanting around a variety of different eras. They had been through a lot since that fateful day when Leonard Snart had blown up the Oculus at the Vanishing Point. So much had changed since then, and it was hardly a surprise – after all, it had been nearly two years.

It wasn't that it didn't hurt Sara anymore when she thought of Leonard, of what could have been, of how the two of them could have turned out together if he were still here. It was just that she had grown used to the pain, and let other things take precedence in her mind; being the new Captain of a time ship meant that she had to put duty first ahead of feelings.

But on the odd occasion, when she would find herself staring at a pack of cards, or rummaging through the wardrobes to find that familiar old parka, or mishearing a passer-by's voice as a harsh drawl, she would have to stop for a moment and catch a breath, and let herself be Her again…the old Sara who had let herself be vulnerable and fall for someone. And not just a random someone. A hero.

Hearing his voice like that in her dream tonight had seemed so vivid, and it shocked Sara just how in that moment, it had seemed like merely minutes when they had last spoken to each other. She could picture him so clearly now; the way he had leant on her bed, the way his smouldering blue eyes had gazed into hers, the sly smile on his handsome face when she'd challenged him for a kiss. Their last conversation was forever burned in her memory, and Sara kept going over in her head the way she had responded to him, questioning why on earth she had rebuffed him and walked away. She'd known deep down when he'd told that he had been thinking about a future for the two of them that she felt the same, and yet she had dismissed his advances, when really she should have kissed him there and then. Perhaps if he'd known there was a chance for those two, he wouldn't have put himself in that stupid situation and got himself killed. Not that all his life was about her – she knew that. Sara knew it had just been a blossoming attraction for both of them, but she also knew it could have gone somewhere real, somewhere true and wonderful, and she hated that she would never be able to experience Leonard in that way, that they never had a chance to try being together.

Sara sat back down on her bed and brushed her long golden hair out of her face, her breathing resumed to a normal pace now. She knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, and so in a sort of heavy acceptance Sara turned her full attention to that cheap metal ring on her finger. She began tapping it against the side of her bed and chuckled to herself, remembering how Leonard had annoyed her by doing that. He'd liked to annoy her, particularly during their card games, as it amused him to see her get so irritated. She hadn't removed Leonard's ring from her finger since the day she'd put it on, less than a week after his death. She could remember that day as if it were yesterday…

– _May 2016 –_

A knock made Sara look up from her bed; for one bizarre moment she thought it was Leonard leant against the door to her quarters, tilting his head and wiggling his eyebrows at her, but no, of course it wasn't. It was Mick, his face empty of all emotion.

'Time to leave,' was his greeting.

'We're here?' Sara murmured, sitting up in her bed.

'Back home,' Mick grunted, staring into space.

'Y'know, it's funny, I sort of see this place as my home now. Well, I did…' She trailed off sadly and looked at him, trying to work out what was going on beneath that glum, cold surface. 'How are you doing?'

Mick looked at her for the first time, and noticed that her eyes were bloodshot. 'How d'you think? My only friend is dead,' he replied, and Sara nodded.

'I'm sorry.'

'And how about you? You're the heartbreaker who left him there,' he grumbled, and Sara scowled at the accusative tone in his voice.

'Don't you dare place the blame on me, you know how stubborn he is – _w-was_ ,' she corrected herself shakily, getting to her feet. 'Once he decided to do it, then…there was nothing I could do. But don't make me feel worse about it than I already do.'

'Is that why you've been shut up in here all this time?' Mick asked, and Sara felt her bottom lip tremble.

'Well I'm not gonna be shut in here anymore. I am not that girl, Mick,' she said determinedly. 'I am not gonna mope around and cry and break…'

'No, you're not. 'Cause you know he wouldn't want that. He had the hots for you 'cause you're feisty, you're strong, and you're like no other woman he's ever met,' Mick said fiercely, shocking Sara, and he looked at his feet awkwardly. 'But you should know, if you need to cry, it doesn't make you weak. You're still the same strong woman. Just go to Kendra or Haircut though when you do, I can't deal with crying.'

Sara attempted a smile. 'Thanks, Mick. I can't believe we can't stop it from happening though. I think that's why I can't really accept it,' she said thoughtfully. 'I mean, we're in a time machine. It doesn't seem final when we can change the past.'

'But not all the past,' Mick grunted. 'You heard what Rip said.'

'Well yeah, but that didn't stop me throwing him a couple of punches,' Sara admitted bitterly, sinking back onto her bed. 'Stupid paradoxes and timelines and…God, why did Snart do it? Actually no, why did _you_ do it? It was you he switched places with.'

'And you probably hate me for that, don't you? Almost as much as I hate myself,' Mick growled, and his voice broke. 'If it wasn't for me, he'd still be here.'

'I don't hate you, and you shouldn't either. He cared about you, and only you. Actually no, that's not true. He cared about all of us. He sacrificed himself just so we could all have free will and make our own choices,' Sara said, completely dazed, and she laughed without humour. 'I think I'd rather everything be pre-determined again if it meant we could have him back.'

'Me too. But he'd have hated it. He always liked the idea that he was in charge of his destiny, and he wanted to be in control of his future,' Mick said, and he snorted. 'Not that he had any plans for his future, but still.'

Sara's face faltered as Leonard's haunting words echoed through her mind…' _I've started to wonder what the future might hold for me…and you…and me and you_.' She was almost tempted to tell Mick what he had said, but then thought better of it. It had taken everything Leonard had in him to say those things, she knew it had, and it was better if it stayed between the two of them. Their own little secret.

Something in Sara's expression must have concerned Mick, for he took a step forward and asked, 'You okay?'

'I just wish he was here,' Sara replied simply, shrugging, and her eyes began to well up. 'I wanna play Gin and have a drink and…y'know, let my shield down, talk to him honestly for the first time, just me and him. Don't laugh at me for saying that, and don't you _dare_ tell anyone on this ship about this conversation.'

Mick stared down pitifully at her for a moment, then felt around in his jacket pocket before pulling out the silver metal ring that Leonard had planted on him moments before the Oculus's destruction. 'Here.'

Sara had to stare at him for a few seconds before realising that he was holding out the ring to her. A 'lousy pinky ring', she had called it, when teasing Leonard about his Freeport Warehouse heist failure. That had been the only time she had touched his hand.

Sara swallowed. 'I can't take that, Mick. It's yours.'

'It's Snart's,' he corrected her.

'He gave it to you.'

'Yeah, because he didn't know you'd be coming after him. Sara, he knew I don't wear God damn rings. I hate rings,' Mick spat.

'But still, I…we weren't even that close,' Sara said dismissively, 'we were barely friends, I shouldn't-'

'Blondie, he loved you,' Mick cut over her sharply, and Sara's eyebrows shot up her forehead. 'I'm not saying in what way, I don't know. I don't even know if he knew. But he did, as much as it pisses me off saying it. You changed him into a guy with feelings, a guy who cared. It's gross but it's true. So I think it's only right that you keep this.'

Sara considered him for a moment, wondering where this man had come from and realising that she didn't really know the true Mick Rory at all, and then stood up and held out her hand to accept the ring. She slid it easily onto her finger, and found herself smiling; it was almost as if a part of Leonard was still with her.

'Thanks, Mick,' she said sincerely. 'It means a lot, really.'

Mick nodded and turned away, perhaps embarrassed by breaking his façade of being a heartless killer. 'You need a minute?' he said gruffly, making his way back over to the door.

'What for?' Sara said heavily, stroking the ring on her finger. 'He's gone, and he's not coming back. Hopefully it'll hit me soon…that way I can accept it. I just don't understand how we're supposed to drop our younger selves back off and then come back here to 2016 like none of it ever happened.'

'We just need to suck it up and get on with it,' Mick said roughly.

'But then what was it all for? Leonard…what did he die for?' Sara asked, praying internally that she could keep the tears from falling again.

'He died for us. He gave us our lives back. And he gave you something else as well,' Mick said, and she gave him a questioning look, 'a reminder that you're still capable of having a heart.'

Sara did not have much time to ponder that, however, nor to properly grieve her almost-lover, for when returning to her 2016 home she discovered that her sister Laurel had been murdered by Damien Darhk, and, as Rip sympathetically kept telling her, there was nothing she could do to stop it from happening. The grief, anger and guilt raged through her, removing any thought of Leonard or anyone else from her mind as she focussed purely on her beautiful sister and her psychotic murderer. Sara was furious. Not only that, she was broken. First her closest friend on this ship, and now her sister. It made her question everything – the point of being on a time ship, the purpose for this world, the outrageous unfairness in the tragedy that had happened to her and the people she loved, and the astounding fact that anyone could still believe in any kind of God. Leonard was one thing, but Laurel?

She sheltered in Leonard's personal quarters for a while as she tried to come to terms with Laurel's death, as it brought her comfort, and she kept wondering what he would say if he were still there to console her. Would he offer to put an arm around her? Would he give her a tissue and wipe away her tears? Would he drop the sarcastic quips and the witty remarks and the harsh drawl, and actually speak like a normal human being to her? Yet another totally different side to Leonard that she had not encountered, and now never would.

It took her many months to recover from Laurel's death, perhaps half a year, maybe more. But she had the Waverider to keep herself occupied, and, after Rip Hunter's temporary time displacement, a new role as Captain to keep her focussed on fixing the mess the Time Masters had left. Along the way of fixing various time aberrations, she met many people and even had a number of flings, the Queen of France and Guinevere in particular sticking out in her memory. She wasn't sure what the cause was for this behaviour but after all, there was nothing wrong with it. She was a young, single woman having fun, and it helped her move on. Leonard would not have wanted her to sit around and cry over what could have been. He would have wanted her to be happy.

And so for a while, though plagued by Damien Darhk and his ironically-titled 'Legion of Doom', Sara carried out the Waverider missions with grace, all the while enjoying life with the Legends and their new crew members. She felt like she had found a new family with these people, and sometimes it made her sad when her thoughts strayed to the lost crew member who had missed out on so much. She even felt guilty that she didn't talk about him. Mick never spoke about his former partner and he was never one to open up, and the others…well, in all honesty, for the others it hadn't been that much of a loss. Yes, it had been sad and devastating for them when Leonard had sacrificed himself, but none of them had really cared about him or gotten attached. Sara had suffered alone, and not suffered enough due to bottling up her grief for Leonard after Laurel's sudden murder. The only time she had come close to mentioning Leonard to the crew was when speaking to one of their new members, Nate, and warning him about the dangers of their missions on the Waverider.

'I can take care of myself,' Nate had been saying.

'Not out here you can't,' Sara had said firmly. 'Out here, even the strongest and the bravest of us die.'

He'd barely even noticed the way her voice almost broke. 'Like Captain Hunter?' he'd asked.

But Sara hadn't been able to bring herself to answer him. Rip had not been even on her mind; she knew that Rip was alive, she just knew it. But Leonard? He was definitely gone. And Nate and Amaya…they'd never even known him, or understood what an incredible hero he had become. It didn't help that she and Nate had had this conversation in the cargo bay: the very room where Sara and Leonard had liked to escape to in order to get some time away from the big crowd of the crew, either to play games with Leonard's pack of cards, or just to talk – this was before they had started going to each other's personal quarters. Sara could remember the first time they'd been in the cargo bay just the two of them, before their games and bonding…how he'd complimented her outfit…how he'd called her by her first name and tried to help her find her humanity and stop her from taking out Stein in Russia…

But there was no time for dwelling on the past, as Sara kept fiercely reminding herself. So she kept on, becoming a greater captain than even Rip had been as she and the Legends continued to travel through time and try to stop Damien Darhk's Legion from gaining the power they needed to change history for their best interests. She had been so focussed, so sure, so determined, as they faced endless dangers and turmoil and life-threatening decisions. But the only thing that shook her to her very core was when their mission diverted them to the World War One battlefield at the Somme in 1916, and she received a message from her crew members while she waited and commanded from the bridge in the Waverider.

'Sara, we have a problem,' came Ray's agitated voice on the coms.

Sara groaned, worried. 'What's happening now?' she demanded from the console.

'It's Snart,' was Mick's foreboding grunt of a reply, and something in his shocked voice made Sara's heart skip a beat, though not in a pleasant way.

'Wh-what d'you mean?' Sara asked, trying to maintain her calm, fierce persona.

'Captain Cold, scary guy with a gun that blasts out ice?' Nate yelled loudly, his terrified voice ringing out through the speakers in the bridge. 'He's here!'

'What do you mean?' Sara asked warily, her voice trembling slightly, 'he can't be here, he died-'

'Well clearly he didn't! He's alive!'


	5. Captain Cold Returns

Sara had collapsed onto one of the steps leading up to the captain's office from the bridge, her face buried in her hands as she tried to come to terms with what her crew members were all hurriedly telling her over the coms as they made their way back to the Waverider.

'It can't be him, it just can't be,' Sara was saying, raising her head from her hands.

'It's not the Leonard Snart who knew us, Miss Lance,' Rip said firmly through the speakers. ' _Captain_ Lance, sorry,' he corrected himself hastily.

Sara frowned. 'What d'you mean?'

'I believe the Legion went back in the past to a time before Mr Snart joined the Legends,' Rip explained heavily, 'I'd say around the time he became Captain Cold.'

'So you mean they went back and picked him up when he was just a twisted crook on the run from the cops in Central City?' Sara asked, her heart sinking.

'It certainly seems that way,' Rip replied darkly.

'But why would he go with them?'

'It appears they have informed him about his fate, hence why he is assisting them change history so his future with the Legends does not happen. He wants to prevent his death,' Rip said heavily, and Sara felt her eyes beginning to well up.

'Oh my God. This can't be happening,' she whispered desperately, leaning against the wall in despair.

She had sat on this very step with Leonard on their last day together. He wouldn't stop tapping his ring.

 _No, don't think about that. Stay focused._

She realised then that the male voices were still talking on the coms.

'Miss Lance?'

'Sara, we need your head in the game.'

'I know, and I'm fine. Just give me a minute,' she snapped impatiently. 'I'll see you all when you get back here. And hurry up! We've got some serious planning to do if this is going to work with the spear.'

She switched her coms off and glanced out of the window, at the distant foggy outline of the battlefield up ahead. She'd have five, maybe ten minutes, before they reached the Waverider. Pressing the button on the wall, she watched as the metal doors to the bridge slid firmly shut, bolting her in and locking anyone else out.

Sara barely had time to let one tear fall as she slid back down onto the floor when a familiar robotic voice rang out through the room, to remind her that she was never truly alone on this ship.

'Are you all right, Captain Lance?'

'Ah, Gideon,' Sara said, sighing, as she covered her face with her hands and hugged her legs tightly. 'No, I'm not. Think that's the first time I've admitted that in a long time. But you won't tell, will you?'

'Of course not,' Gideon replied, her voice empty of any emotion.

'I just need this moment to let myself be upset before they get back and I have to be the captain,' Sara murmured. 'I can't let personal feelings get in the way of this. If this mission goes south, then we're screwed.'

'If you'd permit me to say so, you are allowed to feel, Captain Lance.'

Sara smiled at the computer's heartfelt wisdom. 'I know. I just don't like it when I do. It hurts more,' she said softly. 'Is it stupid that part of me hoped when they said that Snart was there that they meant… _our_ Snart? Y'know, the one who blew himself up at the Oculus, not some younger version from the past? For one second I actually thought…he'd come back. The one we knew. I've always imagined what it would be like, if it turned out he hadn't really died, and how I'd react if he came back for real and…God, listen to me, what a mess.'

'It's not stupid at all, Captain Lance, I completely understand. You left a lot of things unsaid,' Gideon said simply, and Sara frowned, alarmed. 'It's only natural for you to want Mr Snart back.'

'You're a computer, how would you…? Ugh, it doesn't matter.'

'A computer can still have feelings and favourites,' Gideon pointed out indignantly, 'particularly when we can see into your subconscious and those moments in hidden corners of the ship.'

Sara raised her eyebrows. 'Well that doesn't sound creepy at all.'

'Do not worry, Captain Lance, I don't mean that in a perverse way. I just mean that I was rooting for you two,' the computer said, and Sara laughed in response.

'Thanks, Gideon. Me too. I forgot you can read our subconscious,' Sara said thoughtfully, cringing as she remembered that time when Gideon had announced to other crewmembers of Sara's intimate dream with that cute nurse Lindsay from the fifties. 'Actually, Gideon…on the day Leonard died last year…he told me he'd been kept up at night by…well…'

'I remember,' Gideon assured her. 'That was a very frustrating conversation to witness, I almost spoke to you afterwards when you left the room to tell you to go back to him.'

'I wish you would have. But…what he said, was it true?' Sara asked tentatively, almost afraid to hear the answer. 'Did he think about…our future? Me and him?'

'Yes. He did every night after the day you two were trapped together in the engine room,' Gideon replied, and Sara's lips parted; that day had been so long ago for her now, well over three years. 'He imagined scenarios in which he would ask you out on a date, or take you on a trip somewhere in between Captain Hunter's missions. He dreamed of you.'

It was only when Sara felt the water drip onto her hand that she realised silent tears were now streaming down her face. She wiped them away hastily, worried the team might come back and see her like this, distressed and vulnerable; the complete opposite of what a captain should be. She had not expected Gideon's words to affect her so much, not a whole year after Leonard's death.

'The interesting thing about being the ship's computer is that I know you all better than everyone else – I see what you think, I see what you desire,' Gideon continued, and she sounded almost smug (for a computer, at least). 'Mr Snart was very different from the man he pretended to be.'

'He had a good heart,' Sara said fondly.

'That would be an understatement.'

But then Sara's slight smile faded. 'And now we're about to meet Evil Snart from the past who's best pals with my sister's killer.'

There was a pause; apparently Sara's blunt statement had finally rendered the ships' computer at a loss with how to respond.

'Would you like me to leave you alone, Captain Lance?' Gideon finally suggested.

'If you wouldn't mind, Gideon,' Sara said gratefully, breathing out a sigh of relief. 'Thanks.'

And so Gideon remained respectfully silent as Sara cried for the first time in so long, hating herself for still not accepting Leonard's death and for hoping that this Leonard here in 1916 was the old Leonard, the one who loved her. This was going to be difficult, she knew it would, but she would have to face it or else the future of their world would be at stake. She would have to face _him_.

The rest of the crew arrived back merely minutes later, so as Sara unlocked the doors to the bridge she wiped her face clear of any tear streaks and smudged mascara, and stood up straight, determined. The fierce, stony mask of Captain Lance was back on and she walked commandingly towards her crew members as they assembled in the room.

'So Snart's alive,' she said, slowly and calmly, still disbelieving.

'And he's working with the Legion,' Ray declared.

And so they went through their options and decided on a plan…although as they discussed their predicament and went round accusing Mick of switching alliances, Sara became aware that everyone on the Waverider, herself included, were referring to Leonard and Mick as if they were villains or traitors, when neither of them were anymore. Or was she just in denial that the Leonard strolling around the battlefield right now was completely different from the Leonard she once knew and loved?

'He aimed to shoot at us,' Ray was saying despairingly.

'Well of course he did. He's being manipulated by the Legion. Actually no – Snart doesn't get manipulated, he just buys their story and wants to stop himself from dying in the future. Anyone would want to change that if they knew, particularly when he's a heartless bastard who doesn't care about anyone other than himself at the minute,' Sara said sharply, wishing it wouldn't hurt as much as it did for her to say these things. 'This is when he hated Barry Allen, this is before he joined the Waverider – he's selfish. He told me what he used to be like.'

Mick chuckled. 'Snart spoke to you about his past?' he asked her sceptically.

'A little,' Sara admitted, shrugging.

'My God, Blondie. What did you do to him?' Mick murmured, gazing at her in wonder.

Nate frowned and looked between the two of them suspiciously. 'Wait, am I missing something here about you and Snar-?' he began, raising his eyebrows at Sara in surprise, but she cut over him.

'Leave it, Nate,' Sara snapped sharply, and Nate held his hands out in surrender now before she turned her attention to the team at large, 'now let's go find our spear and get rid of it before the Legion destroy everything we've ever fought for.'

Sara was barely able to spend Leonard a second thought following their group discussion, for their mission soon became a little complicated in the form of their future selves arriving on the Waverider to warn them of what would happen if they went ahead with their original plan. Sara was forced to discuss alternative tactics with her future self – the strangest scenario Sara had ever found herself in – and during their conversation, Sara found out a great deal of terrible things that were to happen in the future if the Legion of Doom got their hands on the spear. Indeed, the most shocking thing that Sara's future self revealed was the actions of Leonard Snart; he had killed Amaya in the future. He'd shot her in cold blood, by freezing her with his gun and then shattering her to pieces before all the Legends. It shocked Sara to hear that that had happened, that Snart had done such a thing.

Sara had been so consumed with guilt and grieve and regret over Laurel that it had overshadowed her mourning for Leonard, and perhaps this was her penance; an evil, twisted version of Leonard Snart, from before the days when he began to turn good. The thought of Amaya's brutal murder at his hands made Sara so enraged that she wanted to kill him. A man she had fallen for, and yet now he was tainted by a younger version of himself; a brutal, twisted murderer. It made her sick to her stomach that she could ever have been attracted to someone so evil, and she kept trying to tell herself that he was not the same person as the Leonard who had joined them on the Waverider, that he was two years younger than the man she'd known. A lot could happen to a person in two years; Leonard's fatal sacrifice was proof of that. And yet it still disturbed her to see his earlier self now and to see what he used to be like, although who was she to judge? She had been equally, if not more, horrifying and monstrous during her time with the League of Assassins.

While Sara battled internally with her juxtaposition of feelings about Leonard Snart, she proceeded to battle in person against him and the rest of the Legion on the battlefield of the Somme. She barely registered Snart while they all fought – only that he looked exactly the same and was shooting to kill at her crew – so she and the rest of the Legends duelled and tricked the Legion until the battle was won, and her future self was erased from existence, the timeline now restored to its original path. It was only afterwards, when the remaining members of the Legion had been locked away in the brig, that Sara realised she would have to finally confront the younger, evil Snart face to face.

She couldn't look into the chamber cell when she entered the brig, knowing all too well the familiar expression that would greet her if she did. Instead she strode in with confidence, uncaring and determined to get this over with, and stepped into the centre of the rectangular room.

'Alright, Malcolm is back in 2016 where he belongs,' she announced to the prisoners.

'In prison?' Darhk asked from where he was sat on the floor.

'No. His crappy apartment,' Sara replied with a self-satisfied little smirk, as she turned to face them both through the glass.

'And what are your plans for the two of us?' Snart asked, facing his captor and walking over so that he was stood directly facing her. 'We're dead in 2017, remember?'

Sara hesitated for a fraction of a second that seemed to last an eternity to her as she forced herself to look at Leonard Snart for the first time since he had arrived here in 1916. The last time those eyes had pierced hers had been right after their first kiss…just before Sara had left Leonard to his fate. His rare, soft expression just as she'd leaned away from his lips before leaving him at the Oculus was imprinted in Sara's mind; she had treasured that haunting memory of what she'd thought would be the last time she would look upon his face. And yet right now here he stood, fixing her with that familiar determined, smouldering stare just as he had done all that time ago in her quarters…

' _Me and you.'_

Sara swallowed. His hair was the same, his sly smirk, his sharp jawline, his prominent cheekbones, impeccable smooth complexion, those piercing blue eyes, the arched eyebrows set in a permanent frown, the harsh drawl…all just as she remembered. He was beautiful and he was terrible, and it alarmed Sara so much to see him right there in front of her, separated only by a sheet of glass, after so long since his death. She could see in his eyes that he didn't have a clue who she was or how important she would become to him – if she were to tell him about the things he would end up feeling or saying to her in the future, he would probably laugh. Sara was merely an enemy to him now. He didn't have those memories, that history, that connection. There was nothing for him there, and it was agony for her to see this so evidently in his expression, to look back into the face of the dead man she had once loved and see it empty of emotion…to only see the ruthless killer he currently was.

Composing herself, Sara held her chin up high and took a confident step towards the glass wall of the cell, so that she was stood directly opposite him. 'I'm not taking you back to 2017,' she replied simply.

To her irritation, Snart smirked in response. Despite the threatening tone in her voice, and the fact that she was holding him prisoner and probably going to have him fatally punished for his actions, despite everything…he still couldn't help smiling at the beautiful sight before him. He had never seen a woman before who had made him so instantly intrigued. Her angry pout amused him, her long swishing blonde hair and toned arms even made his heart rate increase, and he couldn't take his eyes off her own. Despite their cold, stony glare, there was a strange sort of warmth in her gaze that wasn't concealed as well as she clearly hoped.

Meanwhile Sara was in turmoil with herself, fighting the urge to release Snart and just keep him here for her to nurture and possibly seduce (though from the look in Snart's eyes it would clearly be he doing the seducing). Why was he smiling? His predicament wasn't exactly looking good, as far as he was concerned. Turning away from his sly smirk so as not to be distracted, Sara focussed instead with glee on the horrified expression on Damien Darhk's cowardly face as he stared up at her in alarm from the floor.

'Mick, get in here,' Sara called loudly.

The metal doors to the brig chamber slid open and Mick reluctantly trudged in. 'Boss?' he grunted to Sara, and Snart threw his partner a look of disgust.

'Time to deal with Snart,' Sara said heavily.

'Wait,' Snart said, holding out his hand, and Mick and Sara froze, frowning at him. 'Before you do that, can I have a moment alone with the captain?'

Mick looked questioningly at Sara, but her eyes were only on Snart, trying to read his motives. She considered him for a moment, then shrugged.

'Why the hell not?' she said coolly, trying to play it casual, and she turned away from him as Snart's lips twitched. 'Mick, could you take care of my sister's killer for a minute outside.'

'With pleasure,' Mick snarled, casting Snart a suspicious glance.

Sara released the prison cell doors with a simple press of the keypad fixed on the wall; when the glass wall disappeared, Mick shoved past Snart, grabbed Darhk by the arm and hoisted him up to his feet before forcing him out of the cell. Darhk remained silent and cooperative as Mick escorted him around the cell but it didn't stop Sara from holding a hand out to grip Darhk's shoulder threateningly.

'Try anything funny, and I'll snap your neck,' she murmured warningly, before nodding at Mick and watching the two of them stomp out of the chamber.

The metal doors slid shut behind them. It was just her and Snart now. They were alone.

Sara folded her arms and leant back against the wall before glancing up at Snart, who had not moved from his position at the edge of the cell, despite the fact that he was free to move out into the chamber now. Sara knew there would be no point in sealing him back in with the glass door, for there was no way he was going to make a pointless attempt to tackle her to the ground and escape – he had seen her fight on the battlefield. He knew who would win.

'What do you want, Snart?' Sara asked eventually, disconcerted by the fact that Snart had managed to stare at her for a considerably long time without blinking.

Snart tilted his head at her, almost as if he were carefully analysing her. 'You put on a good front. This whole act, it's very impressive, well done. But why play it cool in front of me? Must be very weird talking to a dead man. Some would even say disturbing,' he said thoughtfully, and he raised his eyebrows, amused, at the discomfort on Sara's face. 'Oh, it is? Oh dear.'

Sara cursed herself internally; she forgot how annoying Snart could be. 'If you think you can manipulate me into taking you somewhere else so you can run away from the inevitable fact that you will end up spending your last year alive here on this ship with us, you're gonna be very disappointed,' she said, with a false smile.

'I'm just curious as to why a captain so loyal to her crew would do nothing to change a fellow member from making a fatal mistake,' Snart said, leaning casually against the cell doorway – seemingly unaware of the fact that he were posing like a model for a photo shoot – and he frowned at her in mock offence. 'Doesn't seem like you care.'

'I can't change the timeline, Snart,' Sara said heavily, unfolding her arms. 'If I don't take you back to 2014 so you can carry on being Captain Cold and get recruited by Rip to join the Waverider, then it would alter history, it would destroy lives, it would create a paradox that could potentially rip a hole in the universe.'

'Yeah but still,' Snart protested, 'you don't really have much of a point to make there.'

'You think my argument's weak?' Sara asked sceptically.

'I think you're a pain in my ass,' Snart snapped back.

'I couldn't agree more. It sucks, and I hate myself for doing it, but we can't re-write time, not like this,' Sara said firmly. 'And if I'm being honest, after the things you've done since you turned up in 1916, I'd even go as far to say that you deserve what comes to you.'

Snart pretended to flinch. 'Ouch. Me and you clearly weren't pals before I died, then, were we?'

There was a short pause.

'I'm not wasting any more of my time talking to you,' Sara said bitterly, but as she turned away to summon Mick back inside, Leonard called after her.

'And why not? That's very unhospitable for a deceased former crewmate of yours.'

There was an almost playful tone to his voice that enraged her – this imposter did _not_ get to tease her, only the true real Leonard she knew got to do that – and Sara rounded on him furiously.

'No, you're _not_ a former crewmate,' she snapped. 'You're before Leonard's time, you are _not_ the Leonard we knew who stayed with us on the Waverider. You are the monster he was before.'

'And why's that?' Snart asked, completely relaxed and unconcerned.

'You killed her. You killed Amaya,' Sara spat, so angry that she felt like she could cry. 'And for what, to make a point? To scare us off? It was murder, and-'

'You say I did that,' Snart interrupted slowly, frowning, 'but then how come I don't remember it?'

'We already told you – because we changed the timeline. We went back into the past before you had a chance to go on a psychotic murdering spree. You even turned your back on Mick, on all of us!' Sara said accusingly, outraged, and ran a hand through her hair agitatedly. 'Not that that would mean anything to you, you don't know us. I keep forgetting you don't know us.'

'And how come _you_ remember whatever treacherous things I may have done?' Snart demanded. 'Call me stupid but like you said, you guys rewrote the timeline so technically-'

'My other self told me,' Sara interrupted.

'Ah yes, your other self who erased herself from existence by coming back to the past from the future to change the future so it would never happen,' Snart said slowly, clearly confused, and he wiggled his eyebrows at her. 'Brave, if not a bit stupid. Surely you broke some sort of time-travelling code by doing that, and it's going to bite you in the ass later?'

'Probably, but right now I have bigger problems on my plate,' Sara said, glaring at him pointedly.

'Well I'd apologise for killing your friend, but I haven't done it and it never happened,' Snart said slyly, 'so technically, I'm off the hook.'

'It doesn't make you any less of a jerk,' Sara said without thinking, and then she cringed as she remembered that she had said those words to him once before…well, to the future Leonard, at least.

Snart smiled as he considered her, evidently able to tell that that she was working through a tangled web of conflicting thoughts. 'You're a very interesting captain, you know that? Can't imagine me following orders from a bossy blondie like you. So go on, you knew the future me, what am I like?' he asked, apparently fascinated. 'I mean, asides from a soft, suicidal idiot, obviously. What must I become in two years' time to end up sacrificing myself for a bunch of losers?'

Sara's scowl slowly disappeared and her face softened as she considered his question. 'You become a hero. You weren't nice, you didn't really care about anyone apart from Mick…but you saved us all. I always wanted to remember you that way. But now after what you've done – or what you did before we changed the timeline – I don't think I can forgive it. And I hate you for that, because it's completely ruined the way I think of him now,' she murmured, looking down at her feet, and Snart raised his eyebrows at her.

'"Him"?'

'He's not you. You are a selfish, cold-hearted killer and I don't even know you,' Sara said waspishly.

Snart took a step forward, offended. ' _This_ is the real me,' he said firmly, jabbing a finger at his chest and scowling at her. 'Whatever soft pretender you claim to think is Captain Cold-'

'Oh, go to hell,' Sara cut over him, and he held out his hands to gesture their surroundings.

'Already here.'

'Then I'll put us both out of our miseries and take you back to Central City, where you belong,' Sara said fiercely, turning once more to walk away from him.

If it hadn't been for the slight waver in her voice, Snart might have let her go, but instead he spoke up to stop her leaving.

'So that you can let me live out the rest of my short life there only to end up back on this pathetic ship where I'll blow myself up?' Snart drawled.

Sara turned back round and glared at him accusatively. 'You got a problem with that?' she challenged, and Snart smirked.

'I'm gonna enjoy spending time with you, aren't I?' he said, almost flirtatiously, and his familiar tone somewhat unnerved Sara; she looked away from him and tucked a front strand of her hair behind her ear, which made him notice something. 'Hey, Blondie.'

Sara turned and stormed furiously right to him, her nostrils flaring. 'Call me Blondie again and I'll break your jaw,' she snapped, and he had no trouble believing her. 'It's Captain Lance to you.'

'Okay. Let's try again. _Captain Lance_ ,' Snart said ironically, and he indicated her bejewelled hand. 'What is that?'

'It's jewellery,' Sara replied sardonically. 'It's something us girls wear to make ourselves feel pretty.'

'That ring,' Snart clarified loudly.

Sara followed his gaze to see, amongst her other rings, Leonard's lousy pinky ring still attached to her finger. After a whole year, she barely even noticed its presence anymore – at least, not enough to make her think to cover it up from his younger self. He was staring at her suspiciously.

'It's just a ring,' Sara replied calmly, shrugging. 'I got it at some shop in Star City – or Starling City for you, they won't have changed the name in your time yet-'

'You didn't get that from a shop,' Snart murmured, and he reached out and took a hold of her wrist; the feel of his touch sent what felt like an electric current through Sara, and she let out a small gasp that Snart pretended not to notice as he observed the small silver ring on her finger closely. 'That's my ring. I keep it in a drawer in my apartment somewhere. I'm guessing you didn't randomly go there and steal it just to tantalise me? 'Cause that would be…well, pretty odd.'

Sara almost smirked back as she released his hold of her. 'No, I didn't steal it from your apartment.'

Snart stared from Sara to his ring and back again, aware of their uncomfortably close proximity now. She was a good actress, he'd give her that. In front of the rest of the Legion, she had maintained a constantly fierce guard; she had been alert, angry, hateful, determined to set things right. But now it was just him, only him, and her attitude was slowly ebbing away, faltering into a different Sara Lance, a woman who couldn't stop her fingers twitching or her cheeks from blushing or her voice from wavering. Perhaps now he knew why.

'You say I didn't care about anyone apart from Mick,' Snart said slowly, tilting his head as he watched her carefully. 'Is that true?'

Sara stared back at him for a minute, then sighed in defeat. 'You gave this ring to Mick just before you…before you chose to stay behind with the Oculus. You told me it was a reminder that…that even the best laid plans can go sideways,' she said, smiling sadly at the memory.

'I told _you_ that?' Snart asked sceptically.

'Hm-hm. And you gave this ring to Mick…and he gave it to me,' Sara continued, shrugging.

'Why?'

'Because I like to wear rings and he doesn't.'

'Bullshit.'

In that moment Sara hated Snart; she hated him for his smug little smirk, she hated him for that knowing look in his eyes…she hated him for not being _her_ Leonard. Not yet anyway.

'Because he knew it would comfort me…to have a part of you with me,' she replied impatiently, an almost irritable tone to her voice, and her eyes fell to her feet as she stepped away from him and leaned back against the far wall.

There, she'd said it. An overwhelming feeling of relief flooded through her and she felt her shoulders, which she hadn't realised had been tensed up before, suddenly relax. She forced herself to look him in the eye.

Snart was staring at her, his shock not concealed that well as he considered the implications of what she had just said. It made him partly proud, and yet also partly nauseous. He didn't do romance, or any kind of close, affectionate relationship. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd had a meaningless fling, it had been so long ago. He just didn't care about that sort of thing. But judging from the change in his captor's expression, perhaps that was going to change in the near future.

He raised his eyebrows at her. 'Sara Lance…were _we_ …?'

'No. We almost were,' Sara admitted, though it seemed to cost her nothing to say it. 'Bad timing got in the way. And me being stupid. It doesn't change how much I hate your guts right now though. You're not that guy, you have two years of serious work to make you into that better person.'

Snart nodded, unable to take his eyes off her, as he tried to work his head around this information. 'Well who'd have thought?' he said playfully, hardly bothering to conceal his smugness. 'The crook and the assassin. It's kinda got a ring to it. No pun intended.'

He was gesturing his silver ring on Sara's finger, and Sara smiled. It was the first time she had smiled properly around him.

'So I'm gonna end up getting a pathetic crush on you when I join this team of misfits?' Snart asked, his tone that of mock disappointment.

'You're talking as if you haven't already got a pathetic crush on me,' Sara said casually, wiggling her eyebrows.

 _Why am I flirting with him? He killed Amaya in the other timeline!_ Sara hated herself more than ever but then Snart smiled an irresistible smile in response, and she found herself helpless against him.

'You're very sure of yourself,' he noted.

'I know how to read people,' Sara said confidently, smirking. 'And I know _you_.'

'Okay, you're right, you make a fair point,' Snart said, and he laughed; Sara's hand fell to her face at the sight of his wide smile, his glistening white teeth, the sound of his laughter, and he frowned at her. 'What?'

'I…I've never seen you…I've never seen you laugh before,' Sara said, dazed and overcome with emotion. 'I didn't even know you could.'

'Ah, so I don't change too much then. Just less monster, more hero,' Snart said thoughtfully, and he grimaced. 'Ugh, "hero". Not a word I want associated with me.'

Sara rolled her eyes. 'Don't worry, you'll get your fair amount of mischief in before that time comes,' she reassured him, but then Snart's face hardened as he realised what would be coming next in order for her statement to be true.

'You're gonna use a memory do-hickey on me, aren't you?' he guessed.

'Yeah I am. Actually no, Mick is,' Sara said decisively, turning her face away from his. 'I'm gonna let him drop you off. But actually you should act like you don't know about your memory being wiped when he takes you back…he doesn't want this to be any harder than it has to be.'

'You're not coming?' He sounded almost disappointed.

Touched, Sara looked up again and smiled sadly at him. 'I don't think I can, no.'

She needed to still be Captain Lance. She couldn't let herself be…vulnerable again. If she accompanied Mick to drop Snart off in Central City, then she would probably let her old feelings get the better of her, and she couldn't let any personal relationships get in the way of what had to be done. And she couldn't risk crying in front of Snart. She just couldn't let that happen.

'I wish I didn't have to do this,' she said heavily. 'I wish I could go back and change what happened. I regret leaving you there so much, I…but I have to do what Rip taught me, I have to obey the laws of time, it's my duty now. It has to happen.'

'I know,' Snart muttered. 'I'm just seriously pissed off about it.'

Sara nodded. 'That makes two of us.'

The two of them gazed at each other for a minute, both leaning against opposite walls, Snart full of wonder and intrigue at what was to come, Sara full of regret and longing at what could have been.

Snart then leaned off the cell wall. 'Well…if this is it, then I'd like to say it was nice to meet you, but that would be a lie,' he said truthfully.

'Likewise.'

'But I look forward to meeting you properly in two years' time,' Snart said playfully, his voice full of promise, and Sara couldn't help returning his smirk. 'I guess that's one consolation for me joining this sad little group. Just wish it could be under different circumstances…with a different outcome.'

'Me too. When we do meet though…you'll hit on me, and I'll reject you at first. But don't take it to heart. You have your ways, Snart, and you somehow got me to wonder about what was in store for…for me and you,' Sara said, mirroring his own words back to him, and she smiled at Snart's empty expression; clearly, he didn't know how to process this or how to respond. 'And that's an achievement, considering I'd kind of sworn off any more relationships for the rest of my life. You made me feel things I didn't know I could feel again, and I hate you for it but I'm also kinda grateful. I just wish you were the Leonard I knew that was hearing all this, and not the shitty Leonard from the past, but, y'know, whatever.'

Snart frowned at her, a slight curve at one end of his lips. 'You do realise I'm not gonna remember any of this when Mick wipes my memory?'

'Well yeah, why do you think I'm telling you this?' Sara pointed out, and he smiled.

'Listen,' Snart said eventually, for once in his life feeling awkward and at a loss with what to say, 'I really don't do touchy feely.'

'I know. Me neither really. And it's fine. You're not him, you don't even know me, you don't feel that way yet, and I don't feel that way for you now. You're at the beginning and I'm at the end, and it's fine. Time travel just messes this kind of crap up, but it's fine,' Sara said airily, wondering why she was saying this when she had never felt less fine. 'It doesn't even bother me, I mean, I literally hate you right now. You're a horrible human being at the minute, and I despise the fact that I fell for you. But that's two years away as far as you're concerned and you change…and it's all cool, because we're going to drop you off in 2014…and I don't like you so it's not gonna hurt because you're a bastard.'

Snart stared at her for a minute. 'Holy shit,' he said eventually.

'Yeah, I told myself before I came in this room that I'd keep it cool in front of you, sorry, that was a mistake,' Sara said, laughing nervously.

There was an embarrassed pause. For the first time in as long as he could remember, Captain Cold was speechless. No witty remarks, no snarky quips – nothing came to mind. He was powerless against this strange, badass, beautiful woman who had fallen into his life out of nowhere and practically poured out her limited array of emotions to him, despite her obvious hatred of the person he currently was. With a pang he realised then, looking at her now – her confident stance, her awkward smile, her pink cheeks – that his time with this mysterious Sara Lance would be limited. From her uncharacteristic nervous babbling, he assumed it would also be a frustrating, unresolved situation between the two of them. This irritated him even more, and with a heavy sigh he began to walk slowly towards her.

'You don't have to say anything, Snart,' Sara murmured, turning away to hide how mortified she was, 'it's okay.'

'I wasn't thinking about saying anything,' Snart said quietly, and his voice was so soft that it made Sara look back up at him, and she was alarmed to see him approaching with that smouldering gaze, with no hint that he was aware of the concept of personal space…

Sara began to back away against the chamber wall. 'Why are you looking at me like that?' she asked worriedly, trying with all her might to resist that longing stare. 'Don't look at me like that, please…just don't.'

'Why?' Snart almost whispered, tilting his head at her.

Sara opened her mouth to say something but could think of no response; he was inches from her, his eyes were now on her lips, his hand slowly but surely finding her waist…

And suddenly she was back at the Oculus, explosions occurring all around her as she stared despairingly at Leonard holding onto the gearstick… _'Get him outta here!'… 'No.'… 'Just do it.'_ … his eyes fixated on hers, her hand on his arm, their lips and foreheads crushed together in one blissful moment where it was just the two of them and the world wasn't ending around them…the look in his eyes as she'd leaned away –

'Blondie!'

Sara and Snart jumped away from each other just before their foreheads touched, and Sara spun round to see the metal doors slide open as Mick angrily burst in.

'What the hell's taking so long?' he demanded hoarsely, glaring at her and Snart. 'Let's get this over with.'

'Aw, he calls you Blondie too,' Snart noted fondly, grinning at the pair of them. 'Cute.'

'Sorry, Mick,' Sara said wearily, and she smiled apologetically at Snart, trying to act like that nothing had nearly just occurred between them. 'Time to go.'

Snart considered her for a moment, then held out his hand. 'Until we meet again, assassin.'

'For you,' Sara pointed out, her voice breaking slightly, as she took his hand and shook it, and her words seemed to shock Snart for a couple of seconds.

'For me,' he agreed coldly, releasing his firm grip of her hand, and he began to back away. 'Goodbye, Captain Lance.'

'Goodbye, Leonard.'

She watched as Mick marched him out of the chamber, her bottom lip trembling as she tried to steady her breathing after the rollercoaster of emotions that had just run through her in those few minutes alone with him. Just before the brig doors slid back shut, Snart turned around to look back at her for one last time. There was something different in his expression, some warmth in his eyes, some rare softness in his features, and for one blissful second he was Leonard again, _her_ Leonard, and Sara smiled at him. And then the doors shut and he was gone and she crumpled to the floor, clutching the silver ring on her finger as she let the tears fall.


	6. Meeting Leo

When Mick returned to the Waveirder fifteen minutes later, he took a few moments in the cargo bay to let out a few deep breaths, for no one could see him hurting like this, and then he went back to where he knew Sara would still be. The brig doors opened and he stepped through, his eyes blurry, his head pounding, the weight of all the world on his shoulders, and looked down miserably at the small figure hugging her knees to herself in the corner of the chamber, her blonde hair shielding her face from view.

'Did it go okay?' Sara mumbled.

Mick just grunted in response.

'You definitely wiped his memory, yeah?' she asked.

'Why does it sound like you're hoping I didn't?' Mick growled.

'Oh, shut up,' Sara muttered, and she got up to her feet, hastily wiping away her smudged eyeliner…but she didn't fool Mick.

'What did you say to him, when he asked for you to stay behind in the cell?' he asked, his voice even lower than usual. 'When I came back in, he…I've never seen him look that way before.'

'I said what I should have said before he died at the Oculus,' Sara replied heavily. 'It doesn't matter now. He won't remember.'

'He might have done, y'know. It might have stuck, the things you told him,' Mick grumbled emptily. 'He knew how you felt, Sara.'

Mick hardly ever called her by her first name, and he hardly ever stooped as low to talk about something as ghastly as 'feelings'; the effort he was making seemed to put things in perspective, and Sara swept her hair out of her face, touched by the fact that he had come here to check she was all right.

'Did he?' Sara said sceptically, and she gave a sad smile. 'I'm not so sure. Just goes to show we need to tell the people we care about how much they mean to us. Tomorrow's not promised, after all.'

'For once, boss, I agree with you. Now chin up. I think we've got some drinking to do,' he said firmly, gesturing to the brig door.

Sara considered him for a moment then clapped her hands together and nodded. 'Sounds good, I'm in,' she said, and they put their arms around each other as they left the brig and let the doors shut firmly behind them, two people still mourning for their lost friend off to drink their sorrows together.

– _Present Day –_

It took the sounds of distant movement in the corridors outside her quarters for Sara to realise that it was morning. She sighed; she had been lounging on her bed, staring at Leonard's metal ring and daydreaming, all night. She didn't often dwell on that day six months ago when evil Snart from the past had intruded their lives with the Legion, but for some reason, after her dream in the early hours of the morning, it was all that had clouded her mind these past few hours. Time travel was so strange. And that day had been so gruelling, so mentally exhausting…so heart-breaking. Sometimes she regretted not keeping the Spear of Destiny for herself and changing only two things to the timeline – Laurel and Leonard's deaths. If she had done that, then maybe Laurel would still be protecting Star City as the Black Canary, and Leonard would be lying on her bed beside her. Not that he did 'touchy-feely', as he'd so often insisted, but still. In that moment she would give anything to speak to him again, just to hear that seductive drawl and see those piercing eyes admire her. She missed talking to him more than she could have ever imagined.

With a sigh, Sara heaved herself out of bed but before having a chance to pick out her outfit for today, there was a knock at the door.

'Come in. Oh, hi, Jax,' she greeted, as the doors slid open and her visitor entered the room.

'Morning, Sara,' Jax said, smiling. 'Listen, err…we should head back to Central City today, Barry and Iris won't forgive us if we miss the rehearsal dinner.'

Sara groaned. 'Why _now_? We're in a time ship, Jax, we can go back to 2017 anytime we want,' she pointed out, picking out a top and jeans.

'Aw c'mon, Sara, we've been putting it off for weeks now!' Jax protested, clearly frustrated. 'Me and Grey need a little distracting from this whole splitting up Firestorm business, and Mick's bored out of his mind.'

'Bored?! What, does he not have enough to do, are there not enough anachronisms we have to fix?' Sara snapped sardonically.

'Is that why you don't want to go?' Jax said in understanding, and he sighed exasperatedly. 'The others can take care of themselves, you know. Leave Ray in charge, they'll be fine. You need a break from being captain sometimes, y'know, Sara.'

Sara hesitated, thinking hard. 'Maybe you're right. I'm just not sure if a wedding is really what I fancy right now,' she muttered, 'you know, all this showing off about who's got the most fairy-tale perfect romance, ugh.'

Jax raised his eyebrows. 'Well someone's got a case of sour grapes.'

Sara turned to glare at him and he backed away to the doorway, his hands held out in surrender. His words made her eyes fall once again to Leonard's silver ring on her finger. She wondered what he would say if he knew she had been wearing it all this time. He hated being sentimental, so he would probably hate the fact that she wore it. But then again, they had been through a lot …and he _had_ thought about their future together.

'All right, fine then. Gideon, plot a course for Central City, November the 26th 2017,' Sara said decisively to the room at large.

'Right away, Captain,' Gideon replied.

Jax grinned at her. 'Nice one. You won't regret it,' he assured her, and he bounded back out of her quarters to let the others know.

Sara smiled to herself as she headed back over to her wardrobe, sincerely hoping that Jax was right. Perhaps a distraction from this uncharacteristic daydreaming about her lost friend would be good. After all, it wasn't like Barry and Iris' wedding was going to stir up more thoughts of Leonard Snart, was it?

* * *

It turned out after merely a few hours of being in Central City that Sara was pleased Jax had persuaded her to come for the wedding; for one thing it was nice to catch up with her friends, and mainly it was a nice surprise to meet Supergirl's very attractive sister, Alex Danvers. The morning after the rehearsal dinner found Sara waking up to the sound of poor Alex falling out of her hotel bed and landing with a loud thump on the floor. Sara couldn't remember much from the night before, only that she and Alex had played drinking games together and ended up making out against the wall of Jitters Café. Despite only talking to her briefly last night, Sara could tell that Alex was definitely not used to casual hook-ups, and so it was with amusement that a hungover Sara greeted her and Supergirl the next morning outside the church. She had never met someone as adorably embarrassed and awkward as Alex, and she was grateful that she'd met her after such a troubled nights' sleep filled with thoughts of piercing blue eyes and drawling snarky remarks the day before.

Unfortunately, Sara's good mood did not last long, due to the Nazi invasion from Earth-X that decided to attend Barry and Iris's wedding ceremony halfway through the service. Though it was admittedly fun to beat Nazi soldiers to a pulp alongside her new badass friend Alex, the excitement of the event soon wore off as they discovered that these Nazi invaders from a parallel earth were wanting to take over their own world. Even more disturbingly, the Fuhrer that had taken charge for the past number of years over on Earth-X happened to be Oliver Queen's doppelganger, and his dying wife Overgirl needed the heart of her Earth-1 doppelganger – Supergirl – to stay alive. So, after a tough fight against Dark Arrow, Overgirl and the Reverse Flash, Supergirl was kidnapped and Sara, Alex and the others woke up to find themselves in an outside concentration camp on Earth-X.

It was worse than Sara could ever have imagined, to see so many people with shaved heads wearing striped pyjamas, marching around the camp with their heads bent low and any sense of self they'd had left drained from them. One man near them even told them he'd been imprisoned in the camp for 'loving the wrong person', and Sara and Alex exchanged dark looks as they realised the full extent of how terrible this parallel earth was. Armed soldiers lined the camp threateningly, and Sara's friends' powers were blocked. They were all helpless and completely out of options for any escape plan, with nothing left to do apart from stand and wait, and try to digest the fact that this place was real, and a world like this did indeed exist in the universe. Sara was thinking it couldn't get any worse than this when the Earth-X doppelganger of her father showed up, dressed in full Nazi attire and clearly in command of the whole operation at the camp. It made her sick to the stomach – almost as sick as when he told her that he had killed her Earth-X doppelganger for liking women.

Before they knew it, they were all being marched out of the concentration camp on Lance's orders, including the homosexual prisoner they had met earlier, and were powerless to stop the inevitable. They all stood in a line as they awaited their fate, the firing squad preparing to shoot as Lance shouted orders at them. It all became a blur to Sara as they stood and waited in the cold, wet field…she'd had so many near-death experiences – as well as actual death itself – that she never knew whether or not to hope that some miracle would occur again to save her. Perhaps this time she would not be as lucky as she had been previously. Looking around at their surroundings, Sara could tell there was no getting out of this one. This was it. The end of the road. Sara wondered what the others were doing on the Waverider right now, how long it would take them to go searching for her and Firestorm, if they would ever discover that they had been killed on an earth ruled by Nazis at the hands of her father's doppelganger. If she could have chosen a way to go, this would definitely have been at the bottom of her list.

' _What's it like…dying?'_

His voice echoed through her mind now and Sara tried to fight against it and not think about that conversation in the freezing engine room years ago, but it was no good…

' _I guess…lonely? Yeah…like everybody I loved was a million miles away.'_

Sara looked around at her friends, thankful that at least she was not alone this time. But Leonard had been alone. She'd left him there, to die by himself. She should have stayed with him. Or she should have knocked him out and dragged him away, so they could have figured out another way to defeat the Oculus. Why had she left him there alone? How could she have done that to him?

'READY?'

Sara opened her eyes at the sound of her father's doppelgangers' shout, but refused to flinch as the soldiers stood opposite them prepared their rifles. Alex was shivering and breathing deeply.

'I'm sorry, Kara,' she whispered desperately to herself.

'AIM!' Lance ordered, and the soldiers raised their weapons directly at them.

Sara felt Oliver tense up beside her. She alone stayed calm and collected as she glared stonily at Lance – she wanted to look into the face of her killer. She wanted him to be haunted by her face, if this pretender wearing a mask of her father was ever capable of feeling remorse.

It was strange, waiting for death. Normally Sara would be fighting to the very end, she would never give up, but right now, they were completely defeated. There was nothing they could do. Their hands were tied, their powers blocked, they were surrounded by Nazis, and guns were pointed right at their heads.

Sara took a deep breath, ready at last, and Lance opened his mouth to give the final order –

'ARGHH!'

Sara let out a shuddering gasp as the soldiers all yelled out in alarm, dropping their rifles in agony as the sudden blast of ice that had appeared out of nowhere pierced them. The soldiers looked round in shock, holding out their shivering, freezing hands, and Sara and the others followed their horrified gaze. There, stood near them in the corner of the field, was a dark figure wearing what looked like a large parka coat holding out a gun…

The man turned to face the prisoners with a triumphant grin, and despite the unusual silver goggles that covered his eyes, there was no mistaking that chiselled jawline or the fierce stance or the buzz haircut…

Sara's heart skipped a beat.

'I hate fire!' the man said loudly, that smug drawl clearly evident in his dramatic greeting.

The prisoners turned round to look at their rescuer in shock. ' _Snart?!_ ' they all murmured in disbelief.

'About time!' the prisoner in striped pyjamas beside them said exasperatedly, raising his eyebrows over at Snart.

Barry exchanged an uneasy glance with Sara. 'What…-?' he began mouthing to her, confused, but then he was interrupted by Lance, who had recovered from the icy blast from Snart's cold gun –

'KILL THEM ALL!' he yelled.

And so they had no choice but to try and fight the Nazi soldiers – an unbelievably hard mission with their hands tied up – and amongst the yelling and screaming and thudding of unconscious bodies dropping to the ground, Sara could distinctly hear his familiar voice, firm and alert, and the sound of his cold gun, and she could hardly believe this was real, that it was actually happening, that Snart was somehow here on an earth where Nazis ruled…

'TAKE COVER!' Oliver shouted.

Snart leapt forward and blasted the soldiers with his cold gun once more, the sheet of ice hurtling at them all and sending them running for cover. Snart shot one final blast towards the building where the concentration camp was being operated from, and the top of it exploded. Grabbing the keys to the camp from one of the unconscious soldiers, Snart then leapt over the hill to where the group of prisoners were waiting, crouched down so they were hidden from view.

Despite the sounds of more soldiers closing in on them just above the hill, Sara couldn't focus on anything else apart from the energetic man in his fluffy parka knelt near her. He had just saved all their lives. He was the miracle Sara had never thought would come to their rescue. Watching him closely now, Sara couldn't help wondering…was it actually him? Could it really be true? A number of potential scenarios raised through Sara's mind as she stared at him. Perhaps he hadn't blown up with the Oculus; perhaps he had been sucked into the time stream and ended up on a different earth?! Maybe he had been alive all this time waiting to come back to them!

'Hey, you were cutting it close,' the man in striped pyjamas was saying to Snart.

'I thought it was great timing, and I really enjoyed the pun!' Snart replied, smiling at his friend.

Sara frowned and tilted her head at him, confused. He sounded excited, almost giddy.

'So you're Leonard Snart's doppelganger,' Barry realised, and Sara felt her heart sink.

'No, _I'm_ Leonard Snart, but you can call me Leo,' Snart said, and he looked Barry up and down, impressed. 'That is a _fantastic_ outfit. Did you make that?'

He sounded like a father who was proud of his son, or maybe even a boyfriend proud of his partner. Barry looked completely nonplussed. Oliver, too, looked perplexed at this plucky stranger that had saved the day – Sara had forgotten that Oliver had never actually met Leonard Snart before.

'Leo,' the pyjama man said urgently.

Leo turned back to him. 'Right,' he said, nodding as he turned to unlock the blocking device around his friends' neck. 'Time to make you shine, buddy.'

Sara and the others weren't confused by this vague statement for very long, for within seconds the man in striped pyjamas had lit up – literally lit up – and risen in the sky to hover in the air above them, where he proceeded to throw jets of glowing fire at the soldiers continuing to charge at them. Once he had held them off, the glowing man in pyjamas and Leo led them all up the hill at a fast pace, away from the Nazis and towards their own base.

As they ran, they all made hurried introductions to their two new companions and exchanged brief background stories. It turned out that the glowing man was a metahuman called Ray – or rather, 'The Ray' – and Leo Snart went by the name of Citizen Cold, and was seen to be a hero in Central City. It took Sara and Barry every bit of effort they had in them not to snort out in sceptical laughter at this fact.

'So – Ollie, Barry, Marty, Jax, Alex,' Leo was saying as they hurried along onto a deserted road, and then he turned promptly to Sara with raised eyebrows. 'And who are _you_?'

'Sara Lance,' she replied. 'I'm the White Canary. And I'm Captain of the Waverider.'

'Beautiful name. And beautiful occupation. I like your outfit too,' Leo said, and he winked at her, which surprised her so much that she nearly stopped moving. 'You all have good style.'

'Wish I could say the same. Those glasses are very…different,' Sara noted, indicating the silver-tinted goggles around Leo's neck, and he laughed. 'So what about you guys, you're part of a rebellion?'

'The Resistance,' Leo confirmed. 'Nazi's aren't exactly our thing.'

'So you really are one of the good guys on this earth,' Sara said amusedly, shaking her head in disbelief.

Leo frowned. 'Was I not on yours?'

But Sara didn't have time to answer, for a distraction then arrived in the form of a truck filled with what looked like Nazi soldiers. Ray immediately called back at the group to tell everyone to take cover, and before Sara knew what was happening, Leo shot his arm out protectively in front of her and shoved her behind a bush so that they were concealed from view. Sara was breathing rather deeply, but not out of fear of the threat driving past them. She was remembering Leonard's last day alive, when they had hidden under the concealed tile in the captain's office of the Waverider when the Time Masters came to arrest and imprison the team. They had never been stood so close to each other before, with merely an inch between them. Sara hadn't thought of those hidden secluded moments in such a long time, but with Leo here, his arm around her waist, his breath on her neck, she couldn't help thinking about it. Leonard had never been this protective or affectionate around her.

 _This isn't Leonard. Leonard died. This is a different person._

Pulling herself together, Sara released herself from Leo's hold and together they followed the rest of the group towards the headquarters of the Resistance. Their base turned out to be - coincidentally, but not altogether surprisingly - the Arrow Cave.

'Well I guess we're in Earth X's Star City,' Oliver said, looking around.

They stepped out of the lift and entered the quarters, looking around in awe at the machines and tech and weapons and people, all busy with their mission on trying to defeat the greatest evil this world had ever known.

'I have to say, that's one hell of a story,' Ray was saying, looking at Barry as they walked up into the centre of the room. 'You're a Speedster?'

'Yeah.'

''Kay. Y-you two turn into the Burning Man?' Ray asked Jax and Stein.

'Yep.'

'And you're the good doppelganger of the Fuhrer,' Ray said to Oliver, sounding amazed.

'"Good" might be an over-simplification,' Sara pointed out, smiling at Ray.

Leo sat down to lean against one of the consoles as he gazed admiringly at Sara. 'You still haven't told us which Earth _you're_ from. Clearly it's' – he paused to look her up and down, a seductive glint in his eyes as he smiled slyly at her – 'not this one.'

Sara gazed back at him and frowned as she tilted her head at him and smiled, half-exasperated, half-amused. Was every version of Leonard Snart destined to flirt with her? Not that she had any complaints.

'We're from Earth 1,' Barry replied.

Leo's flirtatious smile disappeared and he turned away from Sara to look at Ray, surprised. 'Earth 1, well…golly,' he said.

It turned out that Ray was from Earth 1 too. As they discussed their predicament, Ray revealed the whereabouts of a temporal gateway which worked as a breach between Earth-X and Earth 1 – a way to get back and very near to their base of operations, but guarded by a large army of yet more Nazi soldiers. This left the General of the Resistance highly reluctant to allow their group to risk everything they had been working for to infiltrate the base purely to get to the portal. While everyone split off in different groups to determine what limited options they had – each of which seemed more hopeless than the next – Sara held back for a minute to speak to Leo, mainly just because it felt so nice to keep hearing that drawling voice, after so long of being without it.

He looked older than his Earth 1 counterpart, though perhaps that was because it had been quite a while since Sara had seen Leonard Snart up close, whichever version of him he was. His hair had more flecks of grey in it, and some lines had formed around his mouth and eyes. He had laugh lines – something Sara knew her Leonard would never have got had he been granted the chance to grow older.

'So you and Ray seem really tight,' Sara said, and she found herself smiling at him.

'I should hope so, seeming as he's my boyfriend,' Leo replied casually, a sly smirk creeping at one end of his mouth.

Sara wasn't sure what she felt most prominently at his words; disappointment, relief, heartbreak, triumphant joy? Her mind was a confused mess whenever she fixed her eyes upon Leonard Snart.

'Your boyfriend?' she said, stunned.

'Ah, sorry, do you not have same-sex relationships on your earth-?'

'No, don't worry, we do,' Sara interrupted, amused, and she gazed up at him in admiration. 'It's just surprising…the Leonard on our earth wasn't gay.'

Leo tilted his head. 'Technically I'm pansexual, if you need to put a label on it-'

'No one needs a label, I mean, I'm the same. I like both men and women too,' Sara told him proudly, and Leo grinned at her.

'Well high five to us,' he said, impressed, and their hands met in the air triumphantly.

'You know, it's pretty much allowed on my earth now, for us to be this way – gay, bi, pansexual…whatever you like,' Sara said hopefully. 'It's nothing like on this earth.'

Leo raised his eyebrows. 'I'm liking the sound of your place more and more already.'

'Maybe you and Ray should come back with us. Stay a little while,' Sara suggested. 'Escape this hell hole and set up a new home together.'

'Captain Lance, you might not be able to go back,' Leo murmured apologetically, looking deeply sorry for his new friends.

'We have to. Our friends are in danger. Alex's sister is going to be killed. We have to go back and save them, no matter what the odds,' Sara said firmly, and he couldn't help but smile at her fierce attitude. 'Look, you know the General, you work with him every day. Are you sure there's no way you can persuade him to let us go through the portal?'

Leo considered her for a moment then put his hand on her shoulder. 'I'll have a chat with Ray, see what I can do,' he said softly, and her face broke out in a loving smile.

'Thank you, Leonard.'

'It's Leo,' he corrected her, smirking.

Sara grimaced. 'Sorry. Got it. Leo.'

Somehow Leo managed to persuade Ray and The General into granting them permission to attempt to break through into the gateway (though on a short timescale). Within the next hour, by some miracle, Sara and the others had managed to render the Nazi soldiers guarding the gateway either dead or unconscious…though not without repercussions. Stein was gravely injured in the fight, and so it was with great urgency that they took their leave towards the portal to head back to the Waverider on Earth 1 and get Stein some much needed medical attention.

'Thanks for your help,' Oliver said to Leo as they walked briskly towards the open gateway.

'We're not done helping yet. Our enemies are still on your earth, Ollie,' Leo said sharply.

'Don't call me that,' Oliver retorted, frowning as he marched ahead.

'Give me time, I'll get through that crusty exterior,' Leo said as Sara caught up with him.

'No, you really won't,' Sara muttered heavily.

'Oh, I was talking to you,' Leo replied, the hint of a smirk on his face as he got his cold gun ready for action.

Sara looked up at him in amusement and betrayed a flicker of a smile, and together, they followed the others and strode through the glittering portal back onto Earth 1.

* * *

When the battle on Earth 1 was won and the Fuhrer, Overgirl, and Reverse Flash had been defeated, along with their Nazi soldiers, Sara and the rest of the Waverider team decided to stay in Central City for a few days to allow time to mourn. Martin Stein's injuries during the fight at the Nazi base in Earth-X had turned out to be fatal, and he had died in the midst of the chaos that had ensued. Sara shed a few tears in the privacy of her personal quarters on the Waverider, but she did not cry during the funeral. She had gotten so used to death and tragedy in her life that she seemed to be getting more and more used to it. It had been the same in the aftermath of Leonard's death; Sara didn't seem able to express her sorrow or grief in public. She always put on a stone cold face of someone who had seen and done and endured so much worse, and she often hated herself for it.

After the funeral, Sara noticed Leo stood at Mick's side, a hand on his shoulder. She realised with a pang that he was trying to comfort Mick, and it hit her truly then that this man didn't really know her, Mick and the rest of the Legends at all. He was a stranger. A stranger who looked like the man she had once known and grown to love. When Mick shook Leo's hand off him and trudged away, angry and upset, Leo then wandered over to Sara under the shelter of a tree, with a sympathetic look on his face. It was a kind expression, and she wasn't so sure if it suited him.

'Captain Lance,' Leo greeted softly, and Sara rolled her eyes; the old Leonard would have called her 'Captain' to mock her, but this Leonard was actually addressing her in that way out of respect, and it was disconcerting. 'How're you doing?'

Sara shrugged. 'Oh, y'know, I've been better. It's always hard when you lose one of your own. And it shouldn't have happened, not at the hand of darn Nazis. He was Jewish, for crying out loud, he…he deserved better,' Sara murmured, her forehead creasing up in her anger.

'I know. He knew what he was risking though, and his sacrifice got you guys home,' Leo pointed out. 'He'd be happy about that.'

'Hm. You Snarts are real keen on sacrifices, aren't you?' Sara muttered, slightly bitterly.

Leo tilted his head at her. Sara wondered what he was thinking, if he was confused by her comment, if Mick had told him just what had happened to his Earth 1 counterpart.

'So how come you haven't gone back to Earth-X?' Sara asked him, leaning against the tree trunk.

'I have some things I'd like to take care of here. Closure with my partner's doppelganger being one of them. And I like you guys. And this earth. Quite a few people here seem to accept you for who you really are. Makes a nice change,' Leo drawled, and Sara couldn't help smiling in bewilderment up at him; he frowned. 'What?'

'You're so different,' she said, dazed, and Leo looked rather smug.

'For the better, I hope.'

Sara's smile faded. 'And what about your boyfriend?'

'Ray can manage just fine without me for a while. I'll be going back to him soon anyway, don't want to be parted for too long,' Leo said, and it cost him nothing to say it.

Sara admired him so much. Even after everything he and Ray had been through together on Earth-X and the whole world being against it, Leo's love and devotion to his boyfriend was strong enough to withhold all of that. Sara realised with sadness that Leonard would never have been like that, had they had the chance to make a go of things together. Leonard had always been clear on his view that any talk or expression of affection was repulsive. It made his confession of his feelings to Sara more meaningful and surprising to her even now, despite that conversation being so long ago.

'You guys are really sweet,' Sara noted fondly.

'Thanks, we do try,' Leo replied, draping himself elegantly against the tree trunk beside Sara, and he smiled slyly at her. 'So the Leo you knew, from Earth 1…he had a girlfriend?'

'Not exactly,' Sara said, looking down awkwardly at her feet. 'You know, our Leonard, from this Earth…he'd have hated you. Well, he'd have hated the fact that you look like him anyway.'

'And why's that?' Leo asked, amused.

'Your personalities are...completely opposite. He wasn't exactly what you'd call an 'affectionate' guy. He thought talking about things like love and friendship and emotions and whatever made him 'soft', and that was the last thing he wanted to be,' Sara explained, and Leo snorted.

'What a loser.'

'Yeah, he was. A hero too, though, I might add,' Sara said; she needed Leo to understand that. 'He was a true Legend.'

'I've heard. Mick told me about what he did at that Vanishing Point place,' Leo said, and Sara sighed in relief, glad that she wouldn't have to relive it and tell him the story. 'I'm sorry you guys lost him. Jerk or not…he was a Snart, and the loss of any Leonard Snart is devastating.'

Sara returned his smile. 'That's very true. So…you gonna hang out with Barry and the others for a bit?'

'Actually, I was wondering if I could join the gang on the Waverider for now,' Leo replied thoughtfully. 'Quality bonding time is needed for me and Mick. And me and you.'

Sara suddenly got a fleeting image of Leonard, _her_ Leonard, with his younger face and his salt-and-pepper hair, leant against her bed in her quarters in with his face close to hers, fixing her with that smouldering gaze of his and his lips slightly curved at each end. _And me and you._

Sara blinked rapidly and leant off the tree. 'You and me. Sure. You can stay as long as you want. We're more than happy to have you on the team,' she reassured him, smiling encouragingly, and she briefly touched his arm.

Smiling back, Leo then leant off the tree as well and, together, the two of them walked down the path towards where the Waverider was parked, two new friends ready for a new adventure.


	7. The Ghost on the Waverider

– _January 2016 –_

Sara was annoyed. If it hadn't been for Laurel's convincing words, she would never have given in to curiosity and met at Captain Hunter's rendezvous point to see what his proposed mission was all about. Truthfully, she was totally mesmerised now that they had all entered what Captain Hunter called 'The Waverider', his own time-travelling vessel, but intrigue could only get you so far…particularly when she was having to put up with an arrogant, sneering crook from Central City strolling casually beside her.

'I consider myself to be a broad-minded individual, but this is a lot to take in,' Captain Cold drawled in an almost-fascinated tone, his hand on his chin as he and Sara followed Professor Stein and Ray down the corridor, looking around at the interior of Captain Hunter's strange ship.

'And…why are you telling _me_ this?' Sara asked, frowning as she kept on walking without looking at him, her arms folded.

'You seem to be the only other person on this boat who isn't a super-genius or reincarnated freak-show.'

Sara raised her eyebrows in amusement. 'Actually I was dead for a year.'

'Hey,' Captain Cold murmured, and he stopped walking to face her, 'I'm just trying to make conversation.'

Sara tore her eyes away from further down the ships' corridor to smirk at him. 'Yeah, I could tell by the way you're staring at my ass,' she said, unimpressed, and with that she stalked ahead.

She could practically feel Captain Cold's eyes and smile still on her as she walked away, and sure enough –

'In my defence it's a nice-'

'Do _not_ even go there,' Sara interrupted him sharply as he caught up with her, and she spun round to face him accusatively. 'I bet you can't even remember my name.'

'Sara Lance, right?' he retorted, tilting his head at her. 'Former League of Assassins member, used to be the Black Canary roaming around Starling City, been presumed dead God knows how many times. And that was before this whole dead-for-a-year thing you just threw at me.'

'You've done your homework,' Sara said, snorting as she eyed him sceptically. 'Checked us all out, have you?'

'I never work with a crew until I know the ins and outs of everyone's background,' Captain Cold said smoothly.

Sara almost smiled. 'Trust issues. Nice. Well I doubt we'll be sticking around on this ship for very long, so you won't have to worry about me.'

'I wasn't,' he replied, and his lips twitched at the irritated look on her face as they continued to walk ahead to join the rest of the recruits in a central room up ahead. 'We've got off on the wrong foot, haven't we?'

'Oh, you think? Listen, I hate to crush your dreams, but I'm not gonna be best pals with someone who gets people to call him 'Captain Cold',' Sara said coolly.

'Good point. After all, 'White Canary' is much more normal,' Captain Cold said sarcastically, and his eyebrows flickered in amusement as Sara's nostrils flared. 'How about you call me by my real name? Leonard Snart, at your service.'

Sara considered him for a moment then almost reached out automatically to shake his hand before realising just at the last minute that he wasn't even offering it. Running her eyes over him now, his handsome face and his lean figure wrapped up in a big parka coat almost as if to cover himself up from the world, she figured instantly that he wasn't a touchy-feely kind of person. It was sort of a shame, because he was kind of cute. An idiot and a criminal and definitely someone to avoid interacting with, but still…she wasn't blind.

'Nice to meet you,' Sara said eventually, nodding at him before turning away and walking towards the bridge.

'You're a terrible liar, y'know,' Snart called after her, and Sara turned back, smirking, to see that he was smiling.

It was one of those genuine smiles that Leonard Snart rarely ever had. Sara should have known then and there that she was doomed.

– _Present day –_

'Captain Lance? Everything all right?'

Sara blinked rapidly, lost in daydreams and memories of first conversations and first smiles and everything else that had occurred between them on this very corridor…She forced herself to look up at Leo now, with his innocent, concerned eyes, and his snug-fitting black polar neck jumper. It was nearly a week later since the devastating events of the Nazi invasion on Earth 1, and she had finally gotten round to showing the Legends' newest guest around the Waverider…but the task was proving a lot more challenging for Sara than she would ever have anticipated.

'Y-yeah. Sure. Sorry, where were we…?' she murmured distractedly, her eyes falling again on that little corner of the corridor where Leonard had first hit on her.

'How about I ask Mick to finish the rest of the tour?' Leo suggested gently, and Sara sighed in relief as he put a hand on her shoulder. 'You look like you could use a lie down. Take some time to…I dunno, maybe think about the professor.'

A pang of guilt surged through Sara. Thinking about her deceased team member was the last thing she wanted to do. Her coping mechanism was to just not try not to think at all, to just pretend all was well. It was wrong and unfair on Stein, but it was how Sara had learnt to deal with all her losses over the past few years.

'Actually, that's not a bad idea,' Sara replied airily, avoiding his gaze. 'You sure you're okay if I leave you? It's a…a lot to take in.'

Leo smiled as he looked around in admiration at the ship's corridor. 'I've already been on here a few days, I'm getting used to it. Besides, after everything I've seen on my earth, this is nothing.'

'Of course. I'm sorry. I…I need to go. I'll see you later.'

To say it was strange having Leo on the Waverider would be a massive understatement. At first, Sara found it okay...nice even. He was talkative, keen to form bonds with the crewmates, eager to help out in any way he could on the ship – he even volunteered to take over people's chores. But that was perhaps what made it so peculiar; he was behaving in a way that Leonard never would have done. He was walking where Leonard had walked, leaning effortlessly against various pieces of furniture that Leonard had leant against, drinking the alcohol Leonard had liked to drink, acting cool and smooth just as Leonard had, and it disturbed Sara sometimes. During the Nazi invasion, it had not bothered her so much, because the circumstances had been so different, so nightmarish, so hard to believe, but now they were back in the familiar surroundings of her home and Leo was stood where Leonard used to stand and to Sara, it was just like seeing a dead man walking. She knew Mick found it uncomfortable too, that their guest reminded him too much of his lost partner. She couldn't think of Leo an imposter, not when he was so nice and attempting so desperately to form a connection with Mick, and particularly when Leo was the complete opposite of Leonard's ruthless, brooding, menacing, composed nature. But despite their different personalities, there was no point in pretending that they weren't identical in appearance, and Sara couldn't deny that to her, Leo was merely a shadow of another person when she saw him on the Waverider. He was a ghost.

Consequently, it was becoming a daily occurrence now for Sara to experience vivid flashbacks of past conversations or moments with Leonard whenever she bumped into Leo on the ship. During his first day on board, she walked past Leo on her way to the kitchen, and got a sudden fleeting image of Leonard stood in exactly the same place, torn between Sara and the rest of the Legends, and Mick with his spare pirates.

' _Time to choose a side, I guess,' Leonard said, glaring at Mick before turning back to look into Sara's anguished eyes. 'Chosen.'_

Another time, she found Leo wandering around the cargo bay, curious to find out what was in all those boxes, and as she watched Leo she could also picture Leonard strolling around in his tight leather jacket to gaze seductively at her.

' _Impressive, how many weapons you can fit into that outfit,' he drawled flirtatiously._

And then she could see him sat on one of the boxes, casually leant with his cold gun on their first day together as a team, helping Sara encourage the other members to carry on with Captain Hunter's mission.

' _Don't you think we have the power to change our own fate?' Sara said hopefully, smiling, and Leonard turned to tilt his head at her._

' _For better or for worse,' he agreed, smiling back at her._

So many forgotten conversations and hidden moments…yet now Leo was here, they were all coming flooding back, and it was distracting Sara from the task ahead. Not only was it painful, it was also putting her in a bad mood – something which was not improved when Amaya came to visit her in the office to inform her that Leo had taken over the library to offer one-to-one therapy sessions to help the Legends cope with the death of Stein. Sara knew Leonard would have hated to see his doppelganger offering grievance counselling. So, Sara heaved out a heavy sigh and marched over to the library to put a stop to his shenanigans.

'Hey, Leo,' she greeted as the doors slid open.

'Captain Lance. Glad you could make it,' Leo said in an alarmingly softer-than-usual tone as he gestured the desk before him. 'Please take a seat.'

Sara rolled her eyes. 'Actually, I'm gonna stop you there before you go into your Doctor Freud act-'

'Wow, 'Doctor Freud'?' Leo interrupted, his hand on his chest in mock offense. 'You have a very limited view on the art of Psychology.'

'Okay, whatever, but seriously, this…therapy gig you've got going on? It's gotta stop,' Sara said firmly.

Leo frowned. 'And why is that, may I ask?'

'Because it's not working, in any way!' she replied sharply, her hands on her hips. 'You're just getting everyone worked up!'

'Well excuse me for trying to help you all through your grief,' Leo said in a slightly annoyed drawl, and for a flicker of a second, Sara could almost hear her Leonard behind his voice.

'Role play with a creepy puppet does not help us through our grief!' Sara pointed out.

Leo looked outraged and he pulled out Stein's puppet Amaya had warned Sara about, and held it out in defence. 'He is _not_ creepy, he is a work of art,' he protested, 'I put a lot of effort into-'

'And that's great, I mean, it's weird as hell but we appreciate it,' Sara said exasperatedly, 'but the thing is…you don't know us.'

'Pardon me?'

Sara swallowed, not sure how to say this without hurting his feelings – this Leo was a lot more sensitive compared to the Snart she'd been used to dealing with. 'We're strangers to you, just like you're a stranger to us. You didn't know Stein at all, you don't know the relationships each of us had with him, you don't know how we mourn. Look, I'm sorry, Leo…you think you're being a source of comfort because you look like an old friend who died saving us, but you're a completely different person,' Sara said harshly, striding over to the desk. 'And the old Leonard would never have done this, he'd never have tried all this counselling crap-'

'Counselling is not crap, Captain Lance,' Leo cut over her, scowling, 'it's a good way to express your inner feelings and improve your mental health, it's important stuff-'

'Okay yeah, I didn't mean that, of course…mental health _is_ important,' Sara said, sighing. 'But what I'm trying to tell you is that…Leonard would not have bothered with it, he would have been the last person on this ship to try and get us to talk about our grief, and it's freaking everyone out! And it's not what we do.'

Leo considered her for a moment then sat back down behind the desk. 'I see. I think I understand.'

'What, you're not gonna fight me on this?' Sara asked in surprise, raising an eyebrow at him.

'Well I prefer not to argue, and I see your point of view,' Leo said reasonably.

She shook her head at him in disbelief. 'My God, you really are completely different.'

'I really don't agree with you though. And I _really_ wish you'd stop comparing me to my doppelganger, it's a little bit insulting,' Leo said in an almost stern voice, and Sara looked down guiltily. 'You sure you don't wanna talk, Captain? About Stein, or…anyone else?'

Sara stared at him for a moment. 'There's more important things needed to be done than talk,' she said eventually, trying to stay fierce. 'C'mon, everyone's waiting in the bridge.'

Despite Leo's insistence that he didn't wish to argue, Sara found this hard to believe when he kept interjecting his thoughts on her plans for their upcoming mission, not to mention his snide comments on Mick's drinking habit. It drove her to breaking point when he blocked her way from leaving the captain's office to suit up in order to further express his concern.

'I don't think the Legends are ready for the field,' he murmured, wiggling his eyebrows.

Sara glared wearily up at him, her angry pout full in place. 'Listen, _Leo_ – kicking ass is how we heal,' she said firmly, and with that she prodded him on the chest and pushed moodily past him.

Sara left Leo to his own devices for the rest of the day – it became evident that he had his own disagreements with an angry Mick to work out, not to mention their dangerous encounter with Damien Darkh and his daughter – oh, and a demon by the name of Mallus. The infuriating yet slightly intriguing Ava Sharpe from the Time Bureau joined them on their mission, and as she helped Sara and the rest of the Legends fight against the Vikings, Sara couldn't help admiring Ava's brave, fierce attitude and incredible skill. Sara's flutter of excitement, however, was somewhat dampened after their mission when they got back to the Waverider and Jax announced his decision to leave the Waverider.

After their Christmas dinner, while they were waiting for Jax to finish packing his things together so that Sara could drop him off in 2017, Leo wandered over to the cargo bay to find the captain. He found her sat against one of the boxes, bouncing a ball up and down on the floor.

'Hey. How are you doing?' he asked gently, walking over to sit opposite her.

'Oh, y'know,' Sara said heavily, shrugging. 'I've been better. Mallus kind of…ugh, I don't know. We never seem to get a break. And with Jax leaving as well…look, I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier this morning. I've not been in a good place recently.'

'Well, at least you and that Agent Sharpe seem to work well together,' he noted slyly, and Sara's throw of the ball faltered; she laughed nervously as they both watched the ball roll over to the corner of the cargo bay.

'I'm pretty sure that was a fluke,' Sara brushed off airily. 'We're not exactly the best of friends.'

'Ah, sure. I see,' Leo said sardonically, and he watched her carefully through his observant eyes to see that she was hurting and scared and a little confused, and it was tragic in a way that she felt she had to hide it from everyone.

His silence unnerved her, and Sara looked up at him; as their eyes met, Leo could see right through her; he could see that she wished he were someone else. She wished he was their Leonard from Earth-1, the one who had perished at the Oculus. No matter what he did or how hard he tried, Sara and Mick were never going to be able to move past that fact. He was surprised by how painful he found this; he had never expected to care so much about these people's thoughts of him, and particularly Sara's.

'Can I say something?' Leo asked softly.

Sara raised her eyebrows at him, amused. 'Wow, I may be a captain but I'm not so controlling that you need to ask my permission to speak.'

Leo laughed softly, but then his smile faded. 'You've been avoiding me ever since I came aboard this ship.'

It wasn't a question.

Sara hesitated too long before replying. 'Th-that is...not true,' she said, her guilty tone and expression betraying every word.

'I bet that one sounded more convincing in your head.'

Sara stared at him. She had spoken those exact words to him once. She remembered the way Leonard had looked at her when she'd said that, his frown prominent, his glare almost seductively challenging. That had been so many years ago for her now. Yet suddenly, right now, the memory of it was so vivid.

Maybe that was the problem with Leo being here; without him on the Waverider, it was easy for Sara to forget and pretend and move on. But now, with him strolling between rooms and lounging casually around, fitting in automatically and acting like he belonged, it just brought everything back. It made Sara realise just how little she'd done to respect Leonard's memory or mourn him in the immediate aftermath of his death; she and the Legends had just gone about their lives as usual and powered through it. But now she was guilt-ridden; he had deserved a better send-off. And it was too painful with Leo here as a constant reminder of that.

Before Sara could think of a response, Jax then hopped down into the cargo bay with his bags all ready packed to go, and he looked at Sara expectantly. She gave Leo an apologetic glance and he nodded in understanding before getting to his feet to bid Jax farewell and walk away from the cargo bay, leaving Sara in torment.

Leo accompanied the Legends on a couple of missions, and he was just as brave as his predecessor; no matter how weird or dangerous or bizarre or life-threatening it got, Leo stood by everyone's side and used his cunning and shooting skills with gusto. Sara could tell that it got too much for him, however, on one expedition in which she, Leo, and John Constantine ended up trapped in a nineteen-sixties hospital. Leo ended up getting cornered by some creepy nurses who thought he was mentally ill and hence almost lobotomized him - until Sara and John showed up at the last minute to save him, having been momentarily distracted by each other's successful attempts at seduction. It was a shame that that mission was the last straw for Leo, really, because Sara had found it easier to adjust to Leo being there, mainly because it was fun to have a brief fling with John and forget about her troubles. Not only that, Sara and Leo had also had a rare conversation (maybe even a heart-to-heart) in the bridge earlier that day before they had set off on their mission, and as a result Sara felt closer and more accepting of Leonard's replacement - or 'Fake Snart', as Mick sometimes called him - than ever before.

Sara had been talking to Ava Sharpe via a hologram projection call at the bridge to discuss any updates they had on Rip Hunter and Mallus, the demon Sara had encountered before, and when Ava ended the call, Sara was shocked to see Leonard leant against the side of the doorway with his hands on his cheek and a fond smile on his face.

'Awww,' he said adoringly.

Sara tilted her head at him, annoyed. 'What?'

'First, I apologise for interrupting,' Leo said as he began to walk towards her, 'second, _that_ woman clearly has a crush on you.'

Sara held out her hand in protest, and she was almost tempted to point a finger sternly at him. 'Just don't,' she muttered irritably, turning away to the centre console.

'Come, come, Captain, she called you for absolutely no reason,' Leo pointed out, leaning against the console as he gazed at her teasingly. 'It was just an excuse to talk. To you.'

Sara nodded sceptically, trying to fight back a smile at the memory of all those times Leonard had come over to see her just as an excuse to talk. 'Hm-hm.'

'Gideon, play back that last bit please,' Leo addressed the ship's computer.

'Gideon, don't!' Sara protested, but too late – there Ava's beautiful hologram was again, her long flowing hair down, her awkward laughter, her gorgeous smile, her nervous twirling of her hair –

'Head down, eyes up, cheeks flushed,' Leo murmured playfully, and Sara smirked at him. 'Classic courtship signals.'

Sara couldn't help being amused. Was he being a matchmaker? Really? This was the last thing she would ever have expected to come out of Leo's visit to the Waverider.

'Even if it was, and it is… _not_ ,' Sara said firmly, pointing her finger this time as Leo continued to smirk at her, 'we're…completely different people.'

'I don't know,' Leo said unsurely, 'you're both…strong women, you're both obsessed with repairing time, you're both…super-hot.'

Sara pulled a face at him, alarmed.

'Gay,' he murmured, indicating himself, and he smiled. 'Not blind.'

'Look, Ava's the kind of girl you take home to your parents, and I…am the kind you take to an exorcism,' Sara said, amused and unable to stop smiling back at him. 'And on that note, we'd better go.'

'Whatever you say, Captain,' Leo said, rolling his eyes as he left to fetch his cold gun.

'Hey, Leo,' she called after him, and he turned back to face her. 'You're super-hot too.'

Leo tilted his head at her, his lips twitching. 'Sara Lance, are you hitting on me?'

'Wouldn't dream of it,' Sara said, and she realised then that she and Leonard had hardly ever laughed and joked with each other like this before, asides from during very drunken card games.

Once Leo had left the bridge, Gideon then spoke up…as she always did.

'He's right, you know,' the computer's voice rang out through the bridge. 'You and Ava suit each other well, and you both clearly like each other. You're allowed to move on from Mr Snart, Captain.'

Sara felt her fingers shake slightly on the console at those last words. 'Gideon, with all respect, this has nothing to do with you,' she said sharply, heaving out a heavy sigh.

'Actually, I have been watching over you all for quite a few years now and I've seen everything, so it has a great deal to do with me,' Gideon retorted.

Sara rolled her eyes. 'Cheeky bitch.'

It scared Sara that Leo and Gideon might be right. Yes, she was allowed to move on – hell, Sara had moved on from Leonard _plenty_ of times with many different men and women. But not in the way these two were proposing…the idea of asking someone new out or engaging into a new proper romantic relationship with someone was terrifying. She had tossed away her opportunity to do that with Leonard when he had confessed his feelings to her…but maybe she could learn from that to make sure she didn't let it happen again with someone else. Maybe she did have a chance to be happy and perhaps even have a future with someone after all.

* * *

Throughout their mission that followed, despite her flirtation and subsequent sexual encounter with John Constantine, Sara felt more comfortable and confident about Leo's presence with their team. It was unfair of her to be against him, when really he wasn't taking Leonard's place. Leonard had been gone for a long time, and they had welcomed three new crewmates to the team since then. Leo was just being Leo, and, admittedly, it was nice. Sara realised that maybe she had just been feeling guilty at the thought of what Leonard would have said, if he'd known how much banter she had with his friendlier, 'softer' doppelganger, how much they got on. But he'd never know...so what was the point in worrying?

The two of them continued to bond even more when Leo comforted Sara after her brief trip into the limbo dimension where she let Mallus take over during the exorcism in which Constantine attempted to get them back to the present day. After John had brought her back to consciousness, Leo put a hand on her shoulder and asked if she was all right.

'What was it like there? I imagine you've got a unique perspective,' he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

Sara stared at him, and wondered to herself whether the majority of their relationship would continue to be Leo unknowingly referencing or quoting his Earth-1 self. 'It was very…demon-like,' she answered.

'Sounds great,' Leo replied, after a short hesitation, and they both laughed.

If only it had been enough for Leo, to see that Captain Lance, Mick and the rest of the Legends were keen for him to stay on with them for a little while longer. But alas, by the end of the day, Leo came to the decision that the traumatic near-death experiences of these missions were not quite worth it without Ray by his side. It was better to defeat Nazis on an evil earth with his boyfriend, than be in a Nazi-less world without him.

When Sara found out, she discovered that Leo had interrupted Mick's viewing of the live football game in the captain's office to hug him goodbye.

'Take care of yourself, Mick,' Leo was saying, patting his partner's doppelganger firmly on the back.

'You too,' Mick grunted, his eyes fixated on the screen over Leo's shoulder as they released their hold of each other.

'You know he's still watching TV, right?' Sara asked, smiling at Leo as she approached them both, and he grinned back at her.

'I wasn't watching TV!' Mick protested, but he cut himself short, and admitted, 'just…a little bit.'

'On that note, Captain Lance,' Leo said, walking around the table to address her as she put some food back down, 'I'm going home.'

Sara's smile faltered but she barely had time to process or come up with a good enough reason to persuade him to stay when he hit her with the next bombshell –

'I'm going to ask Ray to marry me.'

Mick's head jerked up in horror. 'Ray?!'

' _My_ Ray, not…your Ray,' Leo clarified hastily.

'Wow. That is a bold move,' Sara said to Leo, impressed.

Sara hoped she hid her pain well. She admired Leo so much for his bravery and devotion to the man he loved, but it was hard to know that her Leonard probably would never have gone to that kind of level had they ever begun a relationship. Although, perhaps marriage _had_ been something Leonard had thought about when daydreaming of his and Sara's future on all those nights. But she would never know. Thanks to her, she never knew would he would have been like as a romantic partner, how he would have acted.

 _Stop it. Stop thinking about it. It's over, he's gone, Leo's a different man, and Ava's around. Time to make a change._

'It is,' Leo was saying, and she could almost sense his nerves. 'It just feels like it's time to sign up for, um…'

'A different kind of adventure?' Sara finished for him.

'A different kind of adventure,' Leo repeated, and he smiled warmly back at her. 'Exactly.'

As he walked away to leave the office, Mick called after him; 'Snart! I mean…Leo. See you around,' he said, nodding.

'I'll see you around,' Leo said quietly, sounding almost touched, and he gave Sara a fond smile before stepping down from the office and leaving the bridge.

Sara smiled at Mick to check that he was all right then hurried off to catch up with Leo, on his way down the corridor towards the cargo bay.

'Leo. Hey, Leo, wait up!' Sara called after him, and Leo stopped and turned back to her in surprise. 'You were gonna leave without saying a proper goodbye?'

'I thought that _was_ our goodbye,' Leo said, confused, but then he smiled. 'Aw, cute. I didn't realise you cared that much.'

'Well I'd…I'd hate to think we drove you away,' Sara said apologetically. 'I know we took some risks back there at the asylum, and I know we could have ended up trapped there in the sixties-'

'There are worse people I could have been trapped there with,' Leo reassured her, tilting his head at her. 'And I willingly made the risk. I wanted to help, that's why I've been with you guys these past few weeks. But I miss Ray. It's time I went back to him. You guys are recovering from Professor Stein's death, and I've…let's say, got closure, by saying what I needed to say to Mick.'

Sara frowned doubtfully. 'Did it really help? Speaking to him even though he wasn't your actual partner from Earth-X?'

'I think it did, yes. Although maybe this whole doppelganger business _is_ a bit much,' Leo admitted. 'I know you guys haven't been able to see me as anyone other than the Leonard Snart you used to know, and I'm sorry if I've made things…difficult because of that. Time to stop wearing the mask of a ghost and go back to being the Snart everyone knows on my own earth.'

'Don't be sorry. It's been nice having you here, honestly. Weird at first, but I got used to it,' Sara said truthfully, and she smiled. 'You're a great guy. It's just you're very different from him, he was…well, it doesn't matter now. I'm really happy for you and Ray. Will we be getting an invite to the wedding?'

'Of course. If he says yes,' Leo added hastily as they continued walking to the cargo bay, and Sara could sense his nervousness once again.

'He will. Anyone would be a fool to reject you,' Sara said, forcing a smile as she reflected on her own first-hand experience of that.

'You flatter me, Captain Lance,' Leo said, his lips twitching.

She rolled her eyes. 'Sara,' she corrected him. 'Please, Sara.'

'And what of you and Ava Sharpe?' he asked playfully.

'What about me and Ava Sharpe? This is no me and Ava,' Sara said firmly. 'There is n-nothing there, I told you before, we don't exactly gel well together-'

'And there we have the classic courtship signals again. You're blushing,' Leo teased, and Sara slapped his arm; he laughed…yet another rare sight and sound that Sara couldn't get used to. 'Have you ever been in love, Sara?'

'Once. Her name was Nyssa,' Sara replied longingly, as they stepped down into the cargo bay. 'I never thought I could love again after her.'

'Until Agent Sharpe came along.'

'Actually it was until Leonard Snart came along,' Sara said without thinking, and in the shocked pause that followed, Sara closed her eyes and turned slowly to face Leo, and she grimaced. 'I haven't been totally honest with you.'

Leo recovered his surprised expression. 'Well it would explain why you've been…let's say, distant from me…since I've been on this ship,' he murmured thoughtfully. 'Mick told me Leonard had had a crush on you – no surprises there, I mean, c'mon – but I didn't realise…you'd felt the same way.'

'I didn't either, until it was too late. He died before I could tell him,' Sara explained heavily.

'That's too bad. Actually, no, that's _awful_ ,' Leo said, frowning, and he pulled a somewhat awkward face. 'I'm sorry…you should have told me before, if I'm making you uncomfortable-'

'You're not, Leo, don't worry. Just because you have the same face as him, it doesn't matter because, like I said before, you two are completely different. You're super sensitive, for one thing,' Sara said, and they both laughed softly. 'Honestly, it was two years ago, it's okay. I'm…over it now. It's nice to talk to you about it.'

It was nice to hear his voice. It was nice to see him smile like that, and gaze at her like that, with such fondness and warmth that she had never seen before. It was nice to even pretend, just for a moment, that it was _her_ Leonard stood before her. But no, she couldn't do that. This was Leo. A totally different man.

'So what happened?' Leo asked, interested. 'If you don't mind me asking.'

'Well…we hung out in our spare time a lot and…well, he was the first proper friend I had on the ship,' Sara said fondly. 'Then he made a pass at me and I turned him down, 'cause I didn't think he was being serious and…well, I guess I was scared of getting in a new relationship. I've regretted it ever since.'

'He knew your instinct would have been to turn him down at first though, even _I_ know that and I barely know you. And he sounds like he was a heartless jerk anyway, so you wouldn't have hurt his feelings that much,' Leo said comfortingly.

 _If only._

Sara tilted his head at him. 'Turns out he wasn't as heartless as I thought he was.'

'No, I guess not. Well you know now to learn from your mistake then. Don't miss out on a chance to tell someone how you really feel,' Leo said pointedly, as he leant against the front doors of the cargo bay. 'You never know what might happen. That's what these little excursions have taught me. It's why I'm going back to Ray.'

Sara smirked. 'Are you still trying to pair me off with Ava?'

'Absolutely.'

'Y'know, you're one of the sweetest guys I've ever met,' Sara said warmly, and she could almost picture Leonard retching in the background at her words.

'Thank you,' Leo replied. 'I'm gonna hug you now, Sara.'

'You're gonna what now? Oh, okay, this is happening,' Sara said, stunned, for Leo had already pulled her into a fierce hug.

She gripped him back tightly and as she burrowed her head in his neck, she felt a tear leak out from her eye.

'You okay?' Leo asked as he released her.

'Y-yeah…just touchy feely Snart, not what I'm used to,' Sara said, laughing as she brushed her hair back while simultaneously wiping the tear from her cheek.

Leo shrugged. 'Well living on my earth brings out that side of you, I guess.'

'Makes sense. It's nice. It's weird, but it's nice. I'm gonna miss having you around, Leo,' Sara said honestly.

At her words, Leo then leant down and kissed her on the cheek. 'You'll see me again. Even if it's some other version.'

'I hope so.'

When he had left, Sara found herself staring at the doors of the cargo bay for quite some time – minutes, hours, she couldn't tell – and she found herself wondering whether she would actually encounter Leonard Snart, from any time or any Earth, ever again. She hoped she would…but if and when it did happen, she couldn't let it affect her so deeply. She couldn't be haunted by memories and thoughts and regrets of what could have been. Leo and Gideon were right. It was time to move on.

And so with that Sara left the cargo bay and as she walked along the corridor before addressing the computer, she took a deep, nervous breath.

'Gideon, can you get me a line on Ava please?'


	8. The Timestream

– _May 2016 –_

'Just do it.'

He didn't know how he expected Sara to respond when he said those words, when he fixed her with that glare that plainly told her his decision had been made. He was preparing for a full-blown argument (no pun intended), with Sara yelling at him and him shouting back before it was too late and they both ended up getting killed. Another part of him thought she would just nod in acceptance, perhaps thank him – if he was lucky – for getting the Legends back their free will, and then drag Mick away to safety. He never even considered the possibility that Sara would approach him to bid him farewell, let alone the manner in which she did say goodbye.

She kissed him in a way Leonard Snart had never been kissed before, and though he often cringed at any physical contact, he kissed her back and leant his forehead against hers, relishing the feel of her long golden hair tickling his face, of her soft lips crushed against his, of her gloved hand clutched desperately onto his arm, of her skin on his skin. When she broke apart from him and ever so slowly leaned away, Leonard was, for the first time in his life, completely speechless. He wanted to say something, perhaps to tell her that he hadn't been joking around with her earlier when he'd mentioned his thoughts about their future, but there was a lump in his throat and the sheer look of agony in her eyes was far too much for him to cope with.

 _It was real. It wasn't just me. She felt it too._

It was astonishing for Leonard to realise this, to see those feelings reciprocated, to see it in her face right now. The shield had been broken, the armour dismantled, and Sara Lance had finally let her guard down to show who she really was and what she really felt. He had never loved anyone before or been in any kind of romantic relationship, and he had never wanted it either. But now everything he could ever want was stood right in front of him, and slowly backing away, her hand letting go of his arm, her tearful eyes tearing themselves away from his…

Leonard closed his eyes, unable to watch as he listened to the sound of the woman he'd fallen in love with hoisting his dear friend away from the Oculus…out of the Vanishing Point…

'Sara,' he whispered, but she was already gone.

His arm was aching now but he knew it wouldn't be much longer. The gearstick was vibrating more fiercely, and the glowing light from the Oculus device was becoming blindingly strong. The end was near, and he had let Sara Lance go, and it had been one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do. This was it.

 _What the hell am I doing? Why am I giving my life for this?_

But despite his doubts, Leonard stood his ground. If there was one thing he hated, it was the fact that his life was being controlled and written by those so-called Time Masters. If he could stop that happening for Sara and Mick, along with the others, then it would be worth it, whatever it took.

 _What have I turned into? What has happened to me?_

And then he heard his own words answering back to him from months ago _…'People change'_ …No one knew that more than Leonard right now, it seemed.

Approaching footsteps then drew his attention to the side as a group of Time Masters appeared urgently around the corner of the Oculus device, Rip Hunter's boss, Zaman Druce, at the lead. He looked horrified as he took in the sight of Leonard's arms securely holding the gearstick down.

'No! Shut it down!' he ordered in a sharp, panicked voice.

Masked soldiers began surrounding the area, their guns lit and pointed directly at Leonard, but he ignored them. His eyes were fixed only on Druce, on the man who had ruined everything for him. His lips twitched at the terror in the man's eyes, but then grimaced slightly as the pain of the expanding fluorescent green substance within the Oculus device began to burn his hands.

'SHUT – IT – DOWN!' Druce shrieked in a bloodcurdling roar.

But Leonard stared back at him defiantly, knowing he had merely seconds left. 'There are no strings on me,' he said firmly.

The whirring noise of the device became deafening as Druce's expression fell into that of defeated resignation, and as he pressed down more strongly on the reverberating gearstick, Leonard was overcome with loneliness. Sara wasn't here, Mick wasn't here…they were all probably escaping on the Waverider right now. That kiss with Sara seemed like a lifetime ago. He was all alone. And it was too late. This was the end.

And then suddenly Leonard Snart was engulfed in the green energy of the time stream as the Oculus Wellspring exploded …and all went black.

– _Present Day: July 2020 –_

It had been three months since Sara Lance had last visited home. She felt bad; she knew she ought to visit her parents more often…they deserved better, particularly after everything they had been through. She stayed with her mother for a few days in Central City, wanting to spend some quality time together before she asked for everyone on the Waverider to pick her up so they could carry on with their current mission. It therefore came as a surprise when Sara bumped into Caitlin Snow at Jitters Café Bar, and Caitlin asked her and the remaining original Legends to meet with Team Flash at some point in S.T.A.R Labs. The urgency with which she said this forced Sara to summon the rest of the team back to 2020 earlier than originally planned, and so together she, Mick and Ray entered S.T.A.R Labs with trepidation on their faces.

'So, what's up?' Sara asked once the greetings and pleasantries with everyone were out of the way. 'Caitlin said it was important…is there some crazy-ass metahuman you guys need help with or something?'

'Not today. But rain check on that, we've had a few issues with those recently,' Cisco said, grimacing.

'Yes, that's very true,' Barry said awkwardly, 'but err…today…we just wanted to talk to you guys about…Snart.'

There was a short pause.

'Snart?!' Mick grunted, looking both surprised and almost offended.

'Leonard Snart,' Iris clarified.

'Yeah, we know who you mean,' Sara said impatiently, frowning in confusion. 'What about him? Has Leo come back to visit?'

'Aw, nice!' Ray said excitedly, his face leaping at the idea, 'we haven't seen him since his wedding last year-!'

'No, it's not Leo, we're actually…we mean our Leonard, from Earth-1,' Barry said, his tone soft and slow, as if he were about to start a group therapy session.

Sara looked back and forth between them all, stunned. It had been so long since she or anyone had spoken or even thought about Leonard Snart. What was going on?

'What about him?' she asked Team Flash. 'It's been, what, four years since he died, what is this-?'

'Yeah, about that – we just wanted to ask, did you…any of you…did you actually see him die?' Barry asked, exchanging an uncomfortable glance with Caitlin.

After a hesitation, Mick blurted out in disgust, 'This? _This_ is what you asked us here for? To ask us about our friends' death, about MY PARTNER?!'

Everyone jumped at his angry roar, but Sara was there at his side in an instant. 'Woah, Mick, calm down,' she urged, putting a hand on his shoulder.

'Yeah, they must have good reason,' Ray told Mick, but Mick just scowled at him.

'We do. Please, just trust us on this,' Caitlin said earnestly, and Sara looked at her and nodded.

Cisco cleared his throat awkwardly. 'So… _did_ any of you see Snart…die?'

'Well of course we didn't, the whole thing blew!' Mick snapped, banging his fist on the table and marching over to the other end of the room barking at Cisco to get him a beer.

'Yeah, we had to get outta there,' Sara confirmed, her face twitching slightly, and she began to subconsciously rub the silver ring on her finger that she'd left there for the last four years.

'And this Oculus thing, it definitely exploded?' Iris asked urgently from her computer.

Sara swallowed, wishing she didn't have to relive this, not after so long, after managing to finally put it behind her and wipe those images of his longing eyes and that Vanishing Point blowing up into smithereens.

'Yeah, we saw it!' Ray said, also sounding irritated and hurt by the interrogation.

'It's just, I thought Mick said that some of the structures in the Vanishing Point were still there after it blew up,' Barry said, watching them all carefully. 'You went there about three years ago on a mission against the Legion, didn't you?'

'Yeah…'

Sara knew that wouldn't be very hard to forget. It had been so long ago, before even the younger version of Leonard Snart had joined the Legion of Doom, before they'd met Leo from Earth-X…The sight of the remains of the Oculus Wellspring were still imprinted on her mind, along with Mick's frozen figure, staring at the place where Leonard had last stood before his death.

'I miss him too,' Sara had said in an empty voice. An understatement of the century.

When Mick had walked away, his head bent low, Sara had remembered hesitating for a minute, staring at the very spot where she had kissed Leonard before letting go of him and leaving him to his fate.

Sara shook her head to try and wipe the image from her mind. It was all still so vivid, even after all this time.

'Bits of the actual device were still standing, weren't they?' Barry was saying. 'I remember you said that ages ago.'

'Yeah, there were…' Mick replied, and the doubtful way in which he said this almost made it sound like a question.

'But there was no…no body or…remains or anything?' Cisco asked hesitantly.

Sara stared at them all incredulously. 'Well gee I don't know, we were a bit preoccupied at the time, searching for Snarts' guts weren't exactly my top priority that day,' Sara snapped sardonically, and she found herself also wishing she could get a beer at this moment.

'Boss,' Mick said in a low voice. 'That's my partner you're talking about.'

'I know, I'm sorry. I just don't know why…Barry, what's this all about?' Sara demanded, fed up with the mysterious air and ridiculous questions.

Caitlin and Iris looked at each other uneasily.

'You might want to sit down,' Iris suggested, and at this Mick's nostrils flared threateningly.

'To hell with that, tell us what you know!' Mick commanded, his eyes wide and bulging.

There was a tense silence, and Cisco nodded at Barry.

Barry took a deep breath. 'I'm not sure if Snart actually died.'

'Wh-what?' Sara's voice was barely a whisper.

'There may be a chance he's still alive,' Barry murmured, and Ray gasped, while Mick simply stared at him, empty of all expression.

'Oho, don't. Don't do that,' Sara said in an unusually wavering voice, backing away slightly and leaning against the wall as she shook her head. 'You can't say that and start making theories and getting our hopes up, when we _know_ he died. He blew the damn thing up, we saw it explode, we…' But she stopped then, her voice caught in her throat.

Team Flash looked at each other in alarm.

'S-Sara, I'm sorry,' Barry said earnestly, 'I didn't realise you were close to Snar-'

'We _all_ were!' Sara cut over him furiously. 'He was our friend, and he sacrificed his life for ours, and…this was years ago! Why are you bringing this up now?'

'Because Barry thought he heard his voice in the time stream,' Caitlin replied gently.

Sara looked round at Mick and Ray in bewilderment. 'Wh-what?' the three of them said simultaneously.

'I was in the time stream a few days ago…long story…and I heard his voice,' Barry replied simply.

'And what was this voice saying?' Sara asked, sounding cynical.

'"There are no strings on me". Does that mean anything to any of you?' Barry asked hopefully.

Sara frowned thoughtfully. 'No,' she replied, and Barry's face fell as the rest of them shook their heads.

'Ain't that a quote from Pinocchio?' Mick grunted, and there was a confused silence before everyone proceeded to ignore Mick's comment.

'I knew you could time travel but…I didn't realise you could just run around the time stream,' Ray said to Barry enthusiastically. 'You just flit back to the past, present and future, just you in your suit?'

'Pretty much, yeah. But I'm trying not to do that as much now. I have a…bit of a habit of messing things up,' Barry said awkwardly, trying to avoid his team's accusing glares.

'No kidding,' Sara said sternly. 'But just 'cause you heard Snart's voice, that doesn't mean anything, I mean…you must hear loads of people in there-'

'No, that's the thing, I don't. And I know that time stream, I've been in there a bunch of times, I know the tricks it plays,' Barry said urgently. 'Sometimes it personifies itself as…someone I know, or someone I used to know, and talks to me through them.'

'What's "it"?' Mick asked.

'Time.'

Sara laughed without humour. 'Okay, this just got trippy.'

'I'm serious. But this wasn't like that. This was the actual Leonard Snart, I know it was,' Barry said earnestly. 'I sense these things, I just…couldn't see him-'

'This is ridiculous,' Sara interrupted, holding her hand out to stop him. 'We saw it, Snart blew it up, he got caught in the explosion-'

'Yeah, he got caught in the explosion. But it wasn't any ordinary explosion,' Barry said, almost tantalisingly, and for the first time in the conversation Sara felt her heart leap in hope.

Cisco moved over to their board, where they could see now that he had drawn a diagram of the Oculus. 'The Oculus was full of time energy, right? I mean, I'll need to take a look at the records Gideon has on the device, but it was basically a massive computer containing the time stream, it's where these Time Masters manipulated the timeline, yeah?' Cisco said eagerly.

'Yeah…' Mick said slowly.

'So what if the Oculus didn't just blow up?' Caitlin speculated. 'What if it…sent a surge of time energy out?'

'What are you saying?' Ray asked, almost as if he didn't dare hope.

Sara let out a deep breath. 'They're saying Snart might have got caught up in this wave of time energy,' she said heavily, and Team Flash gave her triumphant smiles while Mick and Ray simply stared at her, completely dumbfounded.

Barry raised his eyebrows at her, impressed. 'You've thought of this before?'

Sara nodded. 'I thought I was being stupid.'

'Well you're not. We think Snart's trapped in the time stream, and we're going to get him out,' Barry said firmly; Caitlin and Cisco were beaming but Sara and the others failed to return their enthusiasm.

'If he is though…that means he's been trapped there for four years. _Four years_ ,' Sara said, anguished at the mere thought, and it felt like the world's biggest migraine had decided to invade her head. 'How…?'

'I survived in there for six months,' Barry said bracingly. 'It took me a while to get back to normal, I was a bit…weird at first.'

'That's an understatement,' Cisco muttered under his breath.

'But then I was fine,' Barry reassured them. 'I mean, look at me! I'm fine!'

'I wouldn't go that far, Flash,' Mick grumbled.

'Anyway, we just thought…we should consult with you guys first. See what you think and…see if I can find him and get him out of there?' Barry asked, as if he were simply suggesting popping over to the shop to buy some groceries.

'You don't even know if he's actually in there,' Sara protested, scared by the thought. 'What you're suggesting is… _very_ unlikely. He probably did just die at the Oculus, I mean, it was a hell of an explosion, he…he died.'

Barry tilted his head at her sadly and walked over to her. 'Yeah, probably. But if there's a chance, even just the _tiniest_ chance, that he's still out there somewhere…don't you think we owe it to him to try go and find him and bring him back?' he asked.

Sara stared at him for a moment, then turned to face Mick. Out of everyone in this room, he was the one who had the right to choose whether to risk everything and get their hopes up to do this. Mick was breathing heavily, seemingly at a loss with what to think. Then, after a long hard stare at Sara, he nodded. Sara nodded back and turned determinedly back to Barry.

'Do it,' she commanded.

* * *

Sara waited outside. She had been waiting for hours, sat on a bench in a rare grassy area not too far from S.T.A.R labs, and the sun was just beginning to set. She had left the others in the Speed Lab, where Cisco had been setting up the equipment to 'Vibe' Barry into the time stream, whatever that actually meant. Cisco and Caitlin had been vague on what Barry's excursion into the time stream would entail and how long it would take; previously he had sometimes ended up in there for days at a time. Or in his last case, six months. It was brave of Barry to go in there in search of his former enemy, and Sara was ever so grateful to him, but she just couldn't be around to witness the disappointment on everyone's faces when he would come back to their dimension empty-handed. She knew Leonard was dead; she had felt it ever since witnessing the Vanishing Point blow up with her very own eyes. There was no way anyone could survive that, no matter what hypothetical theories these nerdy scientists could come up with all just because Barry had heard a voice that sounded like Snart's. The whole situation was ridiculous, and, quite frankly, unfair for herself and Mick to be put through.

As the sky began to darken, Iris appeared to check that Sara was all right. Sara didn't really know Iris very well, but she was nice company, and was doing her best to comfort her.

'You and Snart were close then, huh?' Iris was saying, as they both sipped on the plastic cups of coffee she had brought them. 'Are you the reason he got all soft?'

'Leonard, "soft"?' Sara said sceptically, laughing. 'He'd have hated to hear you say that.'

'I'm actually being serious. Last time he came here, when he helped Barry break into A.R.G.U.S, he was congratulating us on our engagement and telling Barry to stay being a hero and be good…and he was…well, _nice_ ,' Iris admitted, and then she nudged Sara teasingly. 'And he asked us to not sit him at the singles table.'

Sara rolled her eyes. 'It was nothing like that. We were good friends…not even that. That's all there was to it.' The lie rolled off her tongue easily.

'Uh-huh,' Iris said in a tone that clearly said she didn't believe a word of what Sara had just said.

'And a lot's changed since then,' Sara went on calmly.

At this, a crease appeared on Iris's forehead. 'I'm sorry about you and Ava,' she murmured quietly.

'Thanks. It was a long time ago though, I'm…I'm all right,' Sara replied, and she forced a smile. 'You know me, I power through.'

Iris watched her thoughtfully for a minute. 'You really don't think Barry will find him, do you?'

'That's because there's no one to find! Iris, I'm telling you, he died,' Sara said firmly, struggling to hide her irritation now. 'I think it's cruel to get Mick's hopes up like this.'

'You're not even hoping?' Iris asked, looking desperately sympathetic.

Sara snorted. 'I've seen a lot to know that hope means nothing in this world,' she muttered bitterly.

She looked down to continue drinking her coffee, wishing Iris would stop watching her like that, as if she was expecting her to break down in tears at any moment. Sara just wished that she, Mick and Ray could abandon this pointless trip to S.T.A.R Labs and head back to the Waverider where they belonged. After all, the only thing to come out of this would be further heartache and the return of pain and grief over a friends' death who they had accepted was gone four years ago. It was just plain wrong.

Sara opened her mouth to say this and inform Iris of her decision to leave for the Waverider when she then noticed that Iris was distracted by a sight over Sara's shoulder, and an excited smile was beginning to creep up on her face.

'Oh, yeah?' Iris said, and Sara frowned, confused. 'Turn around.'

Sara twisted around on the bench to follow Iris's gaze and her lips parted as she saw Ray running hurriedly up the brow of the hill to find them. His eyes were alight, almost popping with excitement, and his face was more alive and full of joy than she had ever seen it.

'Sara! Sara!' Ray called out ecstatically, and he sounded rather hysterical as he finally reached them at the bench. 'He was right! HE DID IT! BARRY GOT HIM OUT!'

'Wh-what?!' Sara cried, leaping up to her feet. 'Ray, slow down, what-?!'

'LEONARD'S ALIVE!'

* * *

Sara had never run so fast in her life – which was saying something – as she raced back to S.T.A.R Labs, and when she hurtled into the Speed Lab, she nearly knocked over the majority of Cisco's consoles and equipment.

'Where is he?' she panted, clutching a stitch in her side.

Barry, Cisco and Caitlin were gathered around a table with papers and computers and all sorts. Barry was still dressed in his red suit, and Cisco was removing some sort of head device attached to both their heads.

'He's through here, come on!' Barry said encouragingly, his face wide with a beam that seemed permanently etched on his face, and he reached an arm out to lead Sara to another room just off the side of the lab.

Cisco hurried along with them. 'He's passed out at the minute, but he should be all right-'

'I'm just doing some scans on him now,' Caitlin was saying, examining a clipboard, 'and I'm waiting on the results of his blood test, but all seems to be functioning well-'

Their words were just a blur to Sara as she followed them unsteadily into the next room. She wasn't sure if she was ready for it. She wasn't sure if she could still believe it. Caitlin pushed open the door, and they walked through, Ray and Iris close behind them. Sara's eyes fell instantly on the sleeping figure lying on the hard grey bed before them, hooked up to multiple machines.

There he was.

Leonard Snart.

Alive.

She looked over his short buzz hair that was still a salt and pepper colour, his flawless complexion and familiar frown lines and sharp cheekbones, his face that appeared considerably younger to the one she had grown used to when visiting Leo, his black leather jacket that she had missed so much, his flatteringly tight skinny black jeans…it was him. Her Leonard. It was really actually him. Sara gripped onto Barry's arm beside her as the realisation flooded through her. Leonard was alive.

Mick was sat beside him, looking completely lost as he stared down at his best friend whom he had believed to be dead for four years. Only Mick's low breathing assured Sara that he was indeed conscious and hadn't frozen or suffered some sort of seizure from the shock of what lay in front of him.

'Leonard,' Sara whispered, and her voice broke.

'Yeah, he hasn't got a beard,' Barry said, disappointed, as Sara slowly neared Leonard's bed. 'I wanted to see what he'd look like with a beard and long hair, that's what happened to me!'

'He looks the same,' Sara said, disbelieving, and she shook her head rapidly as she tried to take in and fully process what her eyes were seeing. 'He hasn't changed at all. Same clothes, same hair length…everything.'

'That's probably because it's different circumstances to what happened with Barry,' Caitlin explained. 'When Barry was trapped in the speed force, he went in there voluntarily to spend time in the speedster prison-'

'Ew, why?' Ray interjected, frowning.

'Don't ask,' Cisco advised.

'-But with Snart, he was…well, kind of spooled into the time stream as a result of the Oculus exploding, and he was kept in some kind of constant frozen state judging from his readings,' Caitlin continued.

'But he's going to be okay?' Sara asked, sinking into a seat beside Leonard's bed

'We'll be able to tell more when he regains consciousness. But he should be fine,' Caitlin said, then she grimaced. 'Well, back to his normal self, anyway.'

Cisco smiled amusedly at her tone. 'Caitlin still has a grudge 'cause Snart kidnapped her once.'

'And me,' Mick grunted out of nowhere, and he nodded over in Caitlin's direction, though still not taking his eyes off Leonard. 'My bad. Sorry again, Frost.'

Caitlin frowned. 'Don't call me that.'

'Why?' Mick asked, this time looking up at her. 'You're hot when you're her.'

'Err, excuse me, she's hot _now_ ,' Sara said sharply, raising her eyebrows at him. 'Ignore him, Caitlin.'

Everyone was silent for a while as Team Flash allowed the original Legends to gather around Leonard's bed and take some time to process everything…to appreciate the miracle before their eyes. Sara's hand slowly reached out to touch Leonard's. It was warm. It was real. Just as it had been that one time she had touched it before so long ago, in the bridge when she had teased him about the lousy pinky ring that had now been resting on her finger for four years. She wrapped her fingers around his, never wanting to let go. She didn't want to let him out of her sight ever again. So many regrets, so many missed opportunities…and now she was able to fix them. But was she? After everything that had happened, after all this time, after so much had changed…after she had left him and presumed him to be dead? What kind of future together could she or Leonard expect to happen now after all that?

'Sara, are you okay?' Barry's voice asked from far away, worried.

'I'm fine,' Sara heard herself saying.

She had just noticed that his lips were a different colour than normal, almost smudged with a deep pink gloss. The lipstick she had been wearing when she had kissed him four years ago.

'You're shaking…'

'I said I'm fine.'

But she wasn't fine. Not one bit. She suddenly realised that tears were streaming down her face.

'Sara!' Mick yelped in half-alarm, half-disgust; he had never seen his captain crying like this.

'Sara, what is it, what's wrong?' Iris asked urgently, concerned, as Sara stumbled up from her chair and backed away from Leonard in horror.

'We left him! He's been alive all this time and we just left him, and he's lost four years of his life!' Sara sobbed. 'All this time he could have been with us on the ship, and he was just trapped there in the time stream while we moved on with our lives and-'

'Hey, Sara, you didn't know!' Iris interrupted her, grabbing her arms urgently. 'None of us knew, we only figured it out the other day because Barry happened to hear him, there's no way you could have known!'

But Sara was shaking her head, feeling somewhat hysterical. 'I shouldn't have left him,' she said in trembling voice. 'I left him there to die. I can't…I can't do this, I can't look at him…'

She turned and rushed out of the room, her head buried in her hands. The last time she had lost control of her emotions like this had been when Laurel had died. Her knees gave way and she sank to the floor where she curled up in a ball against the far wall, wishing she could just disappear. She had never felt more confused. It was amazing that Leonard was alive, of course it was, it was everything she and Mick had ever wanted…but she still couldn't believe it. Seeing him there, touching his hand, seeing his stained lips…it brought all the pain back. It made her see the reality of the call she had made, the fact that they had all just given up on him. How would Leonard ever be able to forgive them?

Iris, Ray, and Cisco soon came out of the lab room to comfort her. She leaned into Ray's shoulder as he and Iris put their arms around her in a fierce hug and tried to get her breathing to slow down. It took a while for Sara to be calm again, and even, although the uncontrollable loud sobs had ceased, she still couldn't stop the silent tears from falling. It was all too much. It had to be some sort of dream. She still didn't dare to believe it was real.

After around twenty minutes, Caitlin then popped her head out of the door.

'Hey. I just thought you'd want to know…he's awake,' she said quietly.

Sara's heard jerked up. 'He is?' she said, surprised, and she gave a loud sniff. 'That was quick.'

'He's all right. Just a bit confused,' Caitlin said gently, as she and Barry came out of the room and approached them all on the floor.

'D'you guys wanna see him? Or do you need more time?' Barry asked.

Sara smiled sadly at Ray. 'Time. What a bitch.'

Ray stroked her back. 'C'mon, Captain,' he murmured, smiling. 'Let's go say hi.'

Sara looked at him for a moment and then, gulping, she nodded and smiled back at him, her eyes still rather watery. Wiping her face, she got to her feet; Iris briefly touched her shoulder encouragingly, and Sara then took Ray's hand and led the way to greet their old friend.


	9. The Reunion

When they re-entered the room, Leonard was sat up on his bed, murmuring in a low voice to Mick while taking a sip of water. He looked so _real_. When he'd been unconscious, Sara could have pretended he was a figment of her imagination or that he was still dead. But now he was sitting, talking, drinking, his eyebrows moving. He was right there. Alive.

'Err, Snart?' Barry said hesitantly, and Leonard turned around.

Sara wasn't sure what expression was on her face when their eyes met, but all she knew was that she couldn't move or smile or do anything. His eyes were looking into hers, and they were _his_ eyes – not the eyes of evil Captain Cold from the past who had joined the Legion of Doom, not the eyes of Leo from Earth-X…they were her Leonard's, and he was seeing her for the first time since she had leaned away from him at the Oculus. For a moment Sara was completely frozen, her mind a mess of emotions, while she took in the slightly dazed expression on Leonard's face. Leonard had never appreciated before just how stunning Sara was, but now with her standing there, looking at him like nothing else surrounding them mattered or even existed, it was costing him every bit of effort he had to resist leaping from the bed and kissing her there and then, a desperate impulse that he had never experienced once in his life.

Slowly, Leonard rose from his bed. 'Hello, Sara,' he said quietly, and there was a hint of a smile on his face. 'Thought I was never gonna see you again.'

After spending quite a bit of time with Leo, Leonard's voice was a lot more drawling than Sara had remembered…but his tone didn't fool her. From the blush on his cheeks and the way his head was bowed down slightly as he looked up at her, she knew he was nervous, possibly even slightly embarrassed. Leo had taught her enough about romantic signals to decipher that.

Sara tried to smile back at him, but it was hard, and her bottom lip wobbled slightly. She ought to be happy. She knew she should be feeling rejoiced, over-the-moon, ecstatic. After all, how many times in that first year had she dreamed something like this might happen? But now, looking at him, all she could feel was remorse and guilt.

'We thought you were dead!' Sara said eventually, and her voice shook on the last word as she slowly walked towards him.

Frowning in an almost sympathetic sort of way, Leonard tilted his head at her and opened his mouth before quickly closing it again, clearly not knowing the best thing to say. When he took a few steps forwards, Sara then launched herself at him, flinging her arms around his neck before realising too late that she and Leonard had never hugged once during their too-short friendship, and Leonard was definitely not the hugging type of person. Nevertheless, he didn't push her away; although not as bracing and enthusiastic as Leo had been, Leonard put his arms around Sara unsurely, slightly taken aback, and closed his eyes as he rested her head on her shoulder, breathing in the scent of her sweet-smelling hair. He felt himself smiling, a rare occurrence at the best of times, because he had been so devastated when she had leant away and removed her hold of him at the Oculus, thinking he would never feel her touch again…but now she was here, in his arms, and they were both alive. Leonard just wished he'd have been able to take a photo of the look on Time Master Druce's face just before the Oculus had blown up; it would definitely have eased the tension in this room anyway.

When Sara eventually broke apart from him, she grimaced and quickly removed her arms back to her sides to recompose herself. 'Sorry, I forgot you don't do touchy feely.'

'I'm getting used to it,' Leonard said slyly, in a tone that Sara took to mean that there was no way she would be getting away with kissing him without repercussions, and with a smirk he turned to face Ray, and nodded. 'Raymond.'

Ray smiled back. 'Leonard. Good to see you're alive.'

There was a whole new respect in Ray's voice when he spoke his name, and it was only then when Sara remembered that it had originally been Ray himself who had been predestined to blow up the Oculus.

'So what happened?' Leonard asked in a harsh voice, looking around at everyone ogling him. 'It better have worked.'

Sara smiled, genuinely this time. 'It worked. You saved us. No more scripts writing out our lives.'

'No more Time Bastards,' Mick grunted.

'And Savage?'

'Dead,' Sara and Mick replied.

' _Long_ dead,' Ray said, laughing to himself.

Leonard frowned. 'How d'you have time to take him out? We were only just at the Vanishing Point.'

Sara, Mick and Ray exchanged an awkward glance.

'Actually, err…we weren't,' Sara said uncomfortably, and she turned to Team Flash. 'Caitlin, Cisco…a little help here?'

'It seems you've experienced a different timeline to everyone else,' Caitlin said to Leonard thoughtfully, taking a quick look through her charts. 'We're at a point in the future as far as you're concerned, which is actually our present, whereas you're still at a point that's way in our past.'

Leonard stared at her. 'Well thanks for being clear on things,' he said sarcastically in that dry voice, and Sara's lip began to form a half-stern, half-amused pout.

'You blew up the Oculus, but you didn't die, like you thought you would – like we all thought you did – you got sucked in by time energy to the temporal zone instead,' Cisco explained to him. 'You've been trapped in the time stream all this time.'

'Barry got you out,' Caitlin continued. 'With him being a speedster, he can just run around the time stream as he pleases.'

Leonard rounded on Barry with a rather reluctant smile. 'So once again I owe a debt to the Flash. Things are finally getting back to normal. Barry,' he said gratefully, and he held out his hand.

Barry shook it, beaming away. 'Pleasure was all mine.'

Leonard then turned back to Sara, the sound of her soft laugh being music to his ears, and for the first time his eyes moved away from her beautiful face to her clinging shiny White Canary outfit. He raised an eyebrow.

'I see you've changed your outfit,' he commented.

'Aw, you noticed,' Sara said playfully, tilting her head at him.

'I like it,' Leonard said, smiling, but then his smile began to fade as he looked at Sara's different hair parting and style, at Mick's bigger shape and more lined face, at the flecks of grey beginning to appear in Ray's hair. 'And how long was I trapped in this, err, time stream?'

'Woah, don't get too ahead of yourself, all in good time!' Cisco said in a falsely bright voice, and everyone forced a laugh; Leonard didn't look impressed.

'How about we give you time with your crew for now?' Barry suggested eagerly.

'Yes, you'll have a lot to catch up on,' Caitlin agreed.

'Mick, we'll give you two a few minutes,' Sara murmured to Mick, and while he grunted his thanks to her, Leonard frowned at her, confused as to why she was going already. 'I'll be back soon.'

Mick stayed talking to Leonard for about ten to fifteen minutes, but Sara wished it could have been longer. She'd needed that time to prepare what to say…which was hard, when she didn't even know what to think or feel at this moment in time. At least she had stopped crying. When Mick stepped out of the lab room, he clapped her heavily on the shoulder.

'He's all yours, Boss. Good luck,' he said ominously, and she knew then that he had somehow managed to avoid revealing to Leonard just how long he had been suspended in the temporal zone.

Leonard was sprawled on the bed when Sara entered, his leg crossed over one with his foot dangling over Caitlin's scans and equipment while he fiddled with one of Cisco's gadgets he'd found on the table nearby. Sara smiled; she had missed those ridiculous ways he draped himself or sat on anything. She cleared her throat, and Leonard glanced up at her.

'Hey.'

'Hey,' Sara greeted softly, and she approached him slowly. 'How are you doing?'

'I'm…okay,' Leonard said thoughtfully as he leant his head up off the pillow. 'A little confused, a little light-headed, but…other than that. I'm alive. So… _that_ was a bonus I wasn't expecting.'

'Yeah, about that,' Sara said heavily, running a hand through her hair as she went to sit down on the chair beside him. 'I've been waiting a long time to say this, but you're a real jerk for doing what you did. And also a real hero. I hated you and loved you for it at the same time. So there. Now I've said it.'

She was frowning, but also smiling, and it made him love her even more. Just looking at her and remembering what had transpired between them earlier made him feel like a completely different man – a better one.

Leonard wiggled his eyebrows. 'I don't know,' he said slyly, a flirtatious tone to his voice as he became suddenly interested with the gadget in his hands again, 'you didn't seem to hate me at the time.'

He looked up at her from under his long eyelashes in time to see her lips twitch, and they gazed at each other for a moment, both half-smiling as they remembered. Leonard had never been in this situation before – well, who had? – but more specifically, he had never been faced with the prospect of having The Talk with a woman before. The two of them had thought their kiss would be their goodbye, the last thing they would remember of each other, but now he was alive and suddenly it was out in the open and they knew they would have to address it sooner or later.

'So,' Leonard said pointedly after a silence. 'This is a little awkward.'

Sara laughed, mortified. 'Well it wasn't before you said that but now it is!' she snapped, blushing as she took a sip of water from the glass he'd been drinking from earlier.

Leonard was smiling, but there was an uneasy look on his face as he watched her closely. 'You look older,' he noted, and Sara nearly spat out her drink.

'You really know the right thing to say to a girl, don't you?' she said sardonically, offended.

'I mean…different.'

'Nice save.'

But when he next spoke Sara knew Leonard was no longer in the mood for banter. 'Sara. How long have I been stuck in there, really?' he asked in a low, serious voice. 'Mick wouldn't talk to me about it.'

'You mean, how long have we thought you were dead?' Sara said quietly.

'Yes,' Leonard said slowly, trying but failing to sound patient. 'He said it was a few months but that he's lost count.'

Sara rolled her eyes. 'Oh, Mick, you dumb coward,' she muttered wearily, and she sighed. 'It was more than a few months, Leonard. To be honest, I'm not actually sure exactly how long because, y'know, time travel, but…it's been around four years.'

There was a short pause, and Leonard sat bolt upright in his bed and stared at her, his face empty of all emotion.

'Four years?' He whispered the words, and it frightened Sara.

'Y-yeah…I'm sorry, I know it sucks-'

' _Four years?!_ ' Leonard interrupted sharply, making her jump, and he leapt off the bed and smashed his fist angrily down on Caitlin's table of equipment. 'Son of a bitch!'

'Snart, what the hell?' Sara yelled, alarmed. 'Calm down!'

'I'll calm down when I want to!' Leonard shouted, livid. 'Four damn years…'

He raised his arm to smash up more of the gadgets on the table but Sara shot her arm out and grabbed his wrist to stop him.

'Look, considering you blew up that thing expecting to die, I think you came out ahead!' Sara snapped firmly. 'Four lost years is better than a lost life.'

'And that's very sweet and poetic, but everyone's been thinking I've been dead for _four years_ ,' Leonard snarled, and he snatched his arm away from her. 'You all just forget about me, happy living your lives like I was never here, is that what went down? Four years since me and you kis-' But he cut himself short and clapped a hand to his face, angry with himself.

Sara took a moment to herself to calm her breathing. She had spent so long getting used to Leo over the past couple of years that she had forgotten what Leonard Snart could truly be like, particularly when he lost his temper. This was still Captain Cold, the man who had robbed all of Central City's businesses and banks – not Citizen Cold, the hero of Earth-X.

Sara sat down on Leonard's bed as she watched him pace angrily up and down the lab room. 'We never forgot about you or lived happily like you were never here. How the hell could you say that, after everything we went through?' she said angrily. 'We mourned! We had a memorial service!'

Leonard closed his eyes. 'All right, I…I _apologise_ …but this is a lot to take in,' Leonard said uncomfortably, scratching his head. 'Try being in my shoes for a second.'

'And you try being in ours!' Sara snapped. 'It's a lot for us to take in as well, you were a dead man until two hours ago!'

Leonard rounded on her. 'And is that all you see me as now? A dead man?' he asked, sounding a mixture of cross and hopeless.

' _You_ can't complain, you were the one who stayed behind, you gave me no choice, you chose to stay there and blow yourself up!' Sara pointed out, her eyes beginning to water at the memory. 'You thought it would kill you, just as we all did!'

As Leonard scowled at her, his eyes burning with fury, Sara was instantly reminded of their argument on his last day when the Time Masters arrested the rest of the Legends he'd pulled out his cold gun on her. She thought they would have moved past that sort of thing after everything that had happened.

Leonard swore loudly. 'Four years,' he muttered, his hands on his head as he leaned against one of the counters.

'Why, how long's it been for you?' Sara asked, her voice quieter.

'What, from when the Oculus blew and when Barry pulled me out into his basement downstairs? That _wasn't_ meant to sound as dirty as it did,' Leonard added, grimacing. 'About three seconds.'

Sara raised her eyebrows at him. 'Are you serious?'

'I don't remember anything from being in there. It was all a blur. One minute I was feeding my great exit line to the Time Bastards and then all of a sudden I have The Flash with his arms all over me,' Leonard explained in his usual harsh drawl. 'It was like no time passed at all.'

It was strange seeing him like this; usually Leonard had always controlled, reserved, and spoke sarcastically with specifically chosen words. But now he was being expressive, almost erratic. She realised he was scared.

'Right. Huh,' Sara murmured heavily, looking down at her lap. 'You've definitely got a lot to catch up on then.'

'Yeah, I can only imagine. Mick said Lisa's okay though, so that's…something,' Leonard muttered.

'Yeah, Lisa's fine,' Sara confirmed. 'She's kept her head down, not made any trouble with Barry and the team, so that's something. I think Cisco's about to call her actually to tell her…the good news.'

'That's good, I…I need to talk to her,' Leonard said, sounding extremely tired. 'So who else has died…apart from me, obviously?'

Sara frowned at his tone. 'Why does anyone need to have died?'

'Every acquaintance I make seems to end up dying once every six months, don't ask me why,' Leonard said, giving a casual shrug.

'W-well…Martin Stein was killed two years ago,' Sara replied in a quiet voice, and Leonard leant off the counter in shock.

'You're kidding.'

'He got shot by Nazis.'

'Those bastards. Wait, _Nazis_?'

'It's a long story. And…my sister was also killed,' Sara continued, keeping her eyes firmly off Leonard. 'She died around the same time you did. Well, the same time you got…sucked into the time stream.'

Leonard stared at her for a moment. 'Laurel's dead?' he asked, his voice much softer than what Sara had been accustomed to, and he moved over to sit beside her on the bed.

She nodded. 'Damien Darhk's work.'

'Sara, I…I'm sorry.'

'How much did it hurt for you to say that?' Sara asked, her lips twitching slightly as she tilted her head at him.

Leonard frowned, almost offended. 'I can say "sorry".'

'But not without feeling uncomfortable,' Sara pointed out, and she smiled sadly. 'You and Leo are very different.'

'Ah yes, _Leo_ ,' Leonard said, sounding slightly bitter. 'Mick was just telling me about my soft doppelganger from Nazi Earth who boarded on the Waverider for a while.'

'Hm-hm. He was biggest fluffball I've ever met,' Sara said teasingly.

'Yeuch. So he was a _nice_ guy,' he said, repulsed. 'Bet he had a better chance with you than I ever did.'

Sara felt butterflies at his words; it was pleasantly strange to hear Leonard acknowledge the feelings that he had confessed in their last conversation, all that time ago. It meant that what he'd said was real.

'Actually, he was already taken,' Sara replied.

'What?'

'Oh, did Mick forget to tell you?' Sara said, delighted, and she watched him carefully when she next spoke. 'He had a boyfriend – now husband. They're very much in love. It's so cute. They're probably kicking ass together on Earth-X right now.'

Leonard grimaced.

'Do you not like the idea of your doppelganger being with a man, Leonard?' Sara challenged, raising her eyebrows at him.

'No, it's not that,' Leonard replied, amused, 'it's just the thought of me being in any way "cute". Ugh.'

'Are you pansexual too, then?' Sara asked, fascinated, and she turned her body fully round to face him. 'Only it's just me and you never got much chance to talk about sex and stuff.'

She'd said it before she had chance to think and immediately regretted her clumsy choice of words. It silenced Leonard into barely breathing, which only heightened both their awareness of how closely they were sitting beside each other. He could make out every freckle on her cheeks, and she could just about detect a new grey hair in his left eyebrow.

'I mean, you know, relationships and sexuality…all that jazz,' Sara clarified, laughing nervously, and she ran a hand through her hair as she avoided his gaze.

'No. Me and you never got much chance to discuss it.'

He spoke the words gently, almost seductively, and his gaze was smouldering as Sara found herself unable to look away. He was so desperate to know what she was thinking, whether her feelings had changed, and Sara didn't know what to say at all. So many old conversations and looks were coming flooding back into her memory, but these moments were so much more recent to Leonard. She was four years ahead than he was, four years of being without him, four years in which she had become Captain and defeated evil like no other and led endless missions and fallen in love with Ava…and now out of nowhere these old feelings for Leonard were slowly starting to creep back…but it still wasn't enough…they were in completely different places…yet why should Sara let it stop them after she had spent so long regretting not telling him the truth about how she felt?

Sara's eyes had fallen to his lips but as Leonard slowly started leaning in, there came a brisk rap on the door and without waiting for an answer Caitlin came striding in, completely oblivious as Sara and Leonard jumped apart.

'Ooh, sorry!' Caitlin said, barely looking up from her new charts, and Sara chanced a sideways glance at Leonard; he was smirking slightly, either out of amusement or excitement at what had just happened, she couldn't tell. 'I just thought I'd let you know we've got the results of your scans back, Snart – I mean, Leonard. You're absolutely fine, everything checks out…you're all good to go!'

'Go…go where?' Leonard asked, sounding rather bewildered by the thought. 'Are you guys even still on the Waverider?'

'Hm-hm. And guess who's Captain of it now?' Sara said playfully.

Leonard's lips twitched, impressed – perhaps almost turned on – but then his smile faded momentarily. 'Wait, did Rip die as well?' he asked in horror.

'No, I'm just a lot better at the job than him,' Sara replied simply, and Leonard laughed softly; the first time this version, _her_ version, of Leonard, had ever laughed around her under sober circumstances.

'Nice.'

'Hey, Cait, did we find out what was going on in Snart's mind when he was in the time stream?' Barry asked, barging into the lab room along with everyone else. 'I mean, four years, that's a long time for him to be in stasis…'

'Yeah, was his brain in like, what, aeroplane mode or something?' Iris muttered.

'I'm still here, y'know,' Leonard said pointedly. 'Still here.'

'Well, judging from what Leonard said earlier when he first woke up, and from the look of these results, it seems he was re-living his last few moments over and over again the whole time he was trapped in there. Sort of like a time loop,' Caitlin explained.

'Zari experienced one of those once,' Ray interjected. 'Only…it didn't last four years. Bad time, Leonard.'

'So I spent four years saying "there are no strings on me" on repeat?' Leonard said dryly, and everyone looked at each other in confusion.

'That's what I heard in the time stream!' Barry said ecstatically.

'That's what you said to them before you blew the thing up?!' Sara asked incredulously.

Mick grinned. 'I gotta tell you, Snart, you always choose the right lines.'

Just then, Cisco popped his head round the door. 'Err – guys, Snart, I got your sister on the phone. Will you want to speak to her anytime soon or…?'

Leonard looked relieved. 'God yes. Is now a good time?'

Sara could see what Leonard was thinking. He felt bad for not having visited or said goodbye to Lisa at any point during their missions together on the Waverider. Lisa was his touchstone on this world, the one person who he loved dearly. Sara put a hand on his shoulder; she felt him tense up slightly and only remembered then that Leonard didn't really like this kind of physical contact. He had told her once during a late night on the Waverider – the only physical contact he had been used to was the back of his father's hand from early childhood. That abuse had left him damaged in that regard…Sara nearly withdrew her hand but then Leonard looked up at her with an unusually soft look in his eyes that told her it was okay. After all, they had kissed no less than a couple of hours ago, as far as he was concerned. Clearly he was becoming pleasantly used to this new form of contact.

As Cisco left to bring Leonard his phone, Sara got down from the bed and fixed Leonard with a firm gaze.

'Listen, Leonard…you go spend time with your sister. You and Lisa need to catch up, have quality time…I mean, if this was me, and it was Laurel who was back, I…I can't even imagine, I'd want to spend every moment with her. And I bet that's just how Lisa will feel,' she said, trying to keep her emotions in check. 'So…if you don't want to come back to the Waverider, that's completely fine, we'll all understand. You…you were pretty much dead for four years, so that changes things a lot. You just take as much time as you need with Lisa…and then you can get in touch with us when you know what you want to do, yeah? There's no rush.'

'If you're sure you don't mind. Captain,' Leonard added with a teasing smile.

'Of course not,' Sara reassured him. 'You've been through a hell of a lot.'

'And this is a major shock for you, Snart,' Iris said from the corner of the room, 'I have a therapist I could recommend-'

'Therapy is for losers, but I appreciate your concern,' Leonard interrupted her smoothly, and Sara exchanged an amused look with Mick as they thought of Leo.

Cisco then reappeared in the lab room, holding out his mobile. 'I've got her here,' he said, rushing forwards.

Sara smiled at Leonard. 'We'll leave you to it,' she said, turning away and beckoning to the others that they should follow her outside.

'Hey, Sara,' Leonard murmured, and he reached out and his hand found hers; Sara turned back to him in surprise as he smiled an unusually warm smile at her. 'Thank you.'

Sara gazed back at him for a moment, then down at their intertwined hands. So much time had been spent dwelling on what could have been, on how things could have gone for the two of them, and now he was _here_ , alive and in front of her. Leonard Snart was alive. And he was holding her hand and smiling at her. She had to squeeze his fingers to reassure her that this wasn't a dream.

Smiling back at him, she then reluctantly let go of his hand and followed the others away as Cisco handed Leonard the phone to speak to Lisa, and as they left the lab room, Sara's hand tingled where Leonard had touched it. Maybe she hadn't been wrong or sad to look back on their last conversation before the Oculus with hope…maybe Leonard had a point thinking about their future together after all.


	10. Epilogue: Love Will Keep Us Together

It didn't take Leonard long to call Sara. After a week and a half, when he'd had enough time to spend a few days with Lisa, set his affairs in order, and even help Barry and Team Flash out with a few things, he picked up the phone and asked the Captain of the Waverider to pick him up – if the Legends still needed him to re-join the team. Sara answered that by landing the Waverider directly outside his sister's apartment.

Sara, Mick and Ray helped Leonard settle back in, retrieve his old belongings that they'd not had the heart to throw away, introduce him to the other members of the team that had come along after the incident at the Oculus, and keep him up to date with the current missions. It wasn't until his third evening back on board, however, when Leonard and Sara finally got the chance to get some alone time, just the two of them.

Sara had been painting her nails on her bed when a knock on her open door made her look up. Leonard was stood there, in the doorway, leant casually against the wall with a slight smile on his face. Almost at once, Sara's eyes began to water, and she smiled.

'What?' Leonard asked, tilting his head at her.

'It's just…it's good to see you back here on the ship,' Sara admitted, blinking rapidly and putting away her nail varnish. 'And you don't have to knock.'

Leonard raised his eyebrows at her. 'I don't?'

'No. You can come in whenever you like.'

'Be careful, I might take you up on that,' Leonard murmured flirtatiously, and he walked into her room.

'So how is it to be back?' Sara asked, moving her stuff to make room for him to sit down on her bed as he'd always used to.

'Like I never left, literally. Still wondering what the hell I'm doing on here but I doubt that'll ever change,' Leonard said, and Sara laughed softly.

'And what do you make of our new recruits since you…left?'

'Hmm. Average. I've met worse.'

Sara frowned at him suspiciously; his joking tone wasn't something she had ever been used to. 'You know, you're smiling a hell of a lot more since you came out of that time stream. It's kinda freaking me out. You sure you're not fluffy Leo?'

'Ugh, don't say that. I guess being dead for four years has put things in perspective,' Leonard said dryly, and Sara rolled her eyes. 'So…any idea where my pack of cards is? Mick helped me put my old stuff in my new room but…-' He trailed off when he saw Sara holding the pack out to him.

'I've got them right here.'

His lips twitched. 'You kept them.'

'Of course. In case you ever showed up again. And here you are. Gin?'

'The game or the drink?'

Sara grinned. 'Both.'

And so for the next few hours they played Gin and drank a bottle that Sara had already asked Gideon to prepare for them in the kitchen, and it was a very bizarre feeling, for it was almost as if nothing had changed, as if no time had passed at all, as if Leonard had never been thought to be dead. Only things were _slightly_ different. They began to talk about more personal matters as they played. Sara told him more about Leo, and in response Leonard informed her that he, too, was pansexual, and had even once harboured a minor crush on Barry Allen for a brief time a while before Rip had recruited the Legends. He smiled and laughed as he told his story, lying down on her bed with his elbow propping his head up like he truly belonged there, and in that moment Sara knew he was home and that this was so right. As the night turned into the morning, Sara then talked to him about Laurel, about the immense pain that almost destroyed her, about her guilt and regret that she still couldn't do anything to stop it despite being the Captain of a time machine, about how she had wished he'd been there to comfort her the day she found out about her death. She then proceeded to tell him about the Nazi invasion, and about the Legion of Doom, and his younger self who had joined the Legion and had his memory wiped. Leonard couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that the two of them had actually had a conversation before they'd first met when Rip had gathered them all together, without him remembering.

And then Leonard decided to bring up the subject that they had both known was long overdue.

'So,' he began, making her heart skip a beat. 'We haven't yet talked about the very large elephant in the room.'

'And what might that be?' Sara said casually, bending down to stare at her cards, and when she glanced up at him from underneath her long lashes she saw that he was gazing sceptically at her with raised eyebrows and an amused smile, which just made her laugh.

'The fact that you kissed me just before you left the Vanishing Point,' Leonard clarified, also laughing slightly as he watched her blush.

'Ah, _that_.'

'Hmm, that. You wanna talk about it?'

Sara eyed him in disbelief. 'Leonard Snart, wanting to talk about feelings? Since when did that happen?'

'I think since the last time I came into this very room, if you can still remember,' Leonard pointed out, and there was a short silence as they both smiled at each other. 'Sara, where are we?'

'The Waverider,' Sara replied, and he smirked.

'That's real cute.'

'I don't know, Leonard. It's complicated,' Sara said in a small voice, taking another swig of her drink. 'I _am_ aware I gave you mixed signals that day.'

Leonard frowned. '"That day". You keep forgetting it wasn't so long ago for me. Barely two weeks.'

'And that's what makes this so…weird,' Sara admitted, leaning against the wall by her bed and crossing her legs. 'For you it's been no time at all, but for me it's been four years. And _a lot_ has happened since then.'

'Like becoming Captain,' Leonard said, impressed, and he clinked his glass against hers in congratulations, making her grin.

'For one, yeah. And with Laurel's murder…that took me down a dark path. And I've…I've hooked up with other people, I thought you were dead, and I…I moved on. I had a relationship with someone, with Ava, and it was serious, I loved her…I…I mean, it didn't end well but still, it happened, and it was real,' Sara said honestly; it was vital he understood that. 'Doesn't that bother you?'

Leonard shrugged. 'I'm cool with it. Like you said, I was dead, for all you knew. Go on.'

'Well…then when the younger you came with the Legion, and you fought against us and…killed Amaya in that alternate timeline…that was really hard to deal with. It…tainted the way I thought about you. I know you can't remember any of it and you've changed so much since then, but still. But then I met Leo, and I saw your kind side and how affectionate you could be, and that brought me round…but even if he'd been single I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it because he wasn't _you_. He was a different person. A nicer person, but…not you,' Sara said longingly, and her eyes met Leonard's, and his face was so close and he was so handsome and he was so _real_.

'I thought you said you'd moved on,' Leonard murmured.

Sara paused. He was looking at her lips, and she knew what he wanted to happen…what she had dreamed of happening for years…but now she was overwhelmed and lost and confused and in a complete convoluted mess of emotions. Shielding her face with her hair, Sara leaned away slightly.

'Look, this is too heavy, even for me,' she admitted apologetically, and Leonard leaned back, watching her with a somewhat understanding (maybe even sympathetic) expression on his face. 'I've imagined you coming back for such a long time, I've created scenarios in my head against all odds, I've hoped and prayed even though it seemed pretty obvious you were dead…but now I…I just can't deal with this right now, Leonard, I'm sorry. You're here, and I'm so happy you are, but Laurel's still dead. She's still gone and she's not coming back. All that's left of her is her stupid evil Black Siren doppelganger causing chaos in Star City right now. And I just don't think it's fair.'

And before he even had a chance to say anything, Sara once again found herself walking away from Leonard Snart, leaving him rejected on her bed in her living quarters.

* * *

It was half past two in the morning. Sara had been alone in the bridge for a while now, hugging her knees to herself on the floor as she stared out of the front window, and she was grateful that Leonard or Gideon hadn't disturbed her. She needed time to think. She hated herself for taking her conflicting feelings out on Leonard when none of it was his fault, but it was too late now. Perhaps they were destined to spend the rest of their time together treating each other unfairly like this. Perhaps they were never meant to be.

It was just so strange…so difficult…for she and Leonard to almost kiss again, when it had been four years for her, yet only a couple of weeks for him. How would they be able to get past that? How would Leonard still be able to feel the same way, when he didn't really know who she was anymore?

Sara sighed and focussed instead on the sight in front of her, shielded by glass so it almost looked like a TV screen showing a film with incredible special effects, but no, it was real – the Earth. She had parked the Waverider so that it was hovering just over the moon, as she did most nights now. It was incredible…so incredible that she almost didn't hear the footsteps approaching on the bridge.

'Sara,' he greeted quietly.

'Hey,' she said heavily, getting up on her feet to face him. 'I'm sorry for being a jerk-'

But Leonard stopped her by holding out his hands. 'Please. Allow me. I am…so sorry about Laurel. She deserved better, you both did. And you're right. It's not fair that she stays dead when I got to come back.'

Sara smiled sadly, touched. 'Thank you for saying that. What happened to her…and the fact that I can't fix it…is something I will be haunted by for the rest of my life. The world just…seems to want to screw me and the people I love over constantly. But you're here,' she pointed out, her gaze suddenly warm rather than sad. 'You're alive and you're back on this ship, so…the world can't hate me that much, can it?'

'Stop, I'm getting misty eyed,' Leonard said sardonically, leaning against the wall.

Sara grinned. 'Ah, and we're back with the old Snart. I've missed you,' she said, amused, and there was a short pause while they simply looked at each other from across the other ends of the bridge. 'I'm a very different person, Leonard.'

'You don't seem that different, if you ask me,' Leonard murmured, raising his eyebrows at her as he walked over to the centre console table.

'Well I am,' Sara insisted. 'It's been four years. I've changed, I've seen things, I've done things, I…I feel differently about things.'

'And by "things", you mean me,' Leonard said in understanding, and he smiled reassuringly at her, though he did sound rather miffed underneath his cool composure. 'It's all right, I get it. This whole situation is messed up. You don't have to explain. You've thought I was dead this whole time.'

Sara looked at him helplessly, not knowing what to say or what to feel. 'I…I mourned for you. Not very well, but still. Look, Leonard, I'm sorry we gave up on you, I'm sorry we didn't try and find a way, if we'd known there was a single chance of you still being alive, we'd have-'

'Sara, it's all right,' Leonard interrupted her. 'Honestly. It's all right.'

But she was shaking her head dismissively at him. 'I don't know how you can look at me right now. We left you there, we…how are you so okay with all this?'

'Oh, you know me. It would take a hell of a lot to make me angry enough to not be able to look at you,' Leonard said smoothly, and Sara tilted her head at him in disbelief. 'It wasn't your fault, Sara.'

'Why are you being like this?' she asked, dazed.

He frowned. 'Being like what?'

'Like Leo? Like a nice guy? You absolutely sure you're not some meta impersonating our dead friend? Because if so then I'll kick your ass until you-'

'I'm not a meta, I'm not Leo, I'm Leonard Snart, Earth-1 Snart, the real Snart, the Snart you know,' Leonard said, firmly and patiently. 'I'm not being a nice guy, but…maybe having a kiss and near-death experience all in the same minute changes a man, I don't know.'

Sara tried not to smile but couldn't help it. He had that way with her, particularly now. She ran a hand through her hair nervously and walked over to lean over the table so that she was opposite him.

'You're wrong, by the way. About me feeling differently about you. It's not changed,' Sara said calmly, and Leonard raised his eyebrows at her in surprise. 'That… _this_ …it's something that's been constant, since…since the Oculus blew. I just had to bury it so I could move on. But now you're back and it's seriously confusing for me. You wouldn't understand but…'

'But I can try to,' Leonard finished for her. 'We can just take things slow, Sara. Go back to being friends. Card games, drinks with Mick, that sort of thing. There's no rush.'

Sara smiled. 'I wish I could think like that, but after so many times of nearly dying, it's hard to not wanna treat every day like it's my last.'

'That's fair enough,' Leonard said thoughtfully. 'But I sprung this bombshell on you…that day, in your room. It was unfair of me to do that when you weren't ready to hear it, and you clearly didn't want to.'

'No, when I walked out, that was me just being a bitch-'

'You don't have to explain. I'm just saying…let's start over. Take things…nice and easy. Sound good?' Leonard suggested, but he frowned at the bewildered grin on her face. 'What?'

'This is so unlike you. I'd never have been able to imagine you talking like this,' Sara said, awestruck.

Leonard looked amused. 'To tell you the truth, neither would I,' he admitted.

Sara considered him for a moment then nodded. 'Nice and easy sounds good.'

'Good,' Leonard said, and they shared a smile before he turned to face the astonishing view out of the window. 'So…how come you've parked the Waverider out here?'

'After those Nazis came and attacked us two years ago, I like to come and just look at that view for a few minutes when I can. I mean, I know our Earth is far from perfect, it's got a lot of crap to sort out, but…after what we saw, after what Leo and Ray have to live with every day…it broke my heart that there's actually a world like that…and that there are people out there doing those things to each other. So it's nice to just see what we've got. See how lucky we are. I mean, look at it,' Sara said wistfuly, gesturing the planet in front of them. 'After all the chaos and invasions and monsters…and Earth 1 is still standing. Who gets to see a view like this everyday? It's beautiful.'

There was a pause in which she simply looked out in wonder. It took her a few moments to realise that Leonard was watching her instead rather than the Earth.

'Come with me,' he said, gesturing his head over to the corridor.

'Where?' Sara asked curiously, frowning, and Leonard smirked.

'Just trust me.'

He led her to the other end of the ship, all the while being quiet out of respect for the sleeping crew members, and then they soon arrived at the steps that led down to the cargo bay.

'Our hideout, remember?' Sara asked as they walked into the room, and Leonard returned her fond smile.

'Yeah.'

He then walked over to the entrance doors, and pressed the button on the side wall. Sara gasped out in horror as she watched the doors of the ship slowly begin to slide open to the outside.

'What the hell are you doing?' she exclaimed. 'Are you insane?'

'Sara, relax,' Leonard said, amused. 'D'you really think I'd wanna kill myself a second time?'

'But we'll lose all the air!' she snapped at him, hurrying forwards to smash the button so that the doors would close.

'Honestly, you'd think the Captain would know a bit more about her ship, wouldn't you?' Leonard said teasingly, and Sara frowned at him in confusion. 'Rip and Gideon didn't tell you? The force fields round the ship keep the oxygen in. For a small amount of time. Kind of like an airtight bubble.'

Sara stopped where she was, having realised that her eyes had popped out of her sockets and the oxygen hadn't been wiped from the room. They weren't dead, and the doors were wide open now, with nothing but open space and stars, and she was forced to conclude that what Leonard was saying must be true.

'How did you find out about this?' Sara asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

'I told you before, I cased every inch of this place, and I asked the right questions. I know my way around your ship's computer,' Leonard explained, winking at Sara. 'Isn't that right, Gideon?'

'It's good to have you back, Mr Snart,' Gideon's voice rang out through the room.

Leonard smirked at Sara in a self-satisfied way. 'Now tell our friend to turn the Waverider round so you can see your favourite view in person rather than through a window.'

Sara shook her head at him exasperatedly and smiled. 'Gideon, you heard the man,' she commanded to the room at large.

'Turning now, Captain,' Gideon replied, and sure enough, the Waverider began to slowly revolve on the spot.

Feeling dizzy by the overwhelming number of stars and constellations facing them, Sara stumbled slightly as the ship turned, and Leonard reached out and grabbed her by the waist to catch her.

'Whoops. Careful,' he said, letting go, and Sara felt suddenly flushed.

She could feel herself becoming _her_ again. No more cold, fierce, heartless act. Leonard was bringing out her nervous, giddy, excited, emotional side. And it didn't make her angry or afraid this time. Not one bit.

And then suddenly there it was. The Earth. Gideon had parked the Waverider in the perfect spot, with the planet just right _there_ , directly in front of them. No glass, no shield. Just the Earth. After everything Sara had seen in her life, it was the simple things like this that truly got her. Without thinking, she reached out to grab Leonard's wrist, before withdrawing it hastily after remembering he probably wouldn't like it.

'Sorry, I-' But she broke off when Leonard took her hand firmly in his and intertwined their fingers together.

Smiling at each other, they then sat own side by side, their legs dangling over the edge, casually drifting in space. The air was cool but odd; the force field had no breeze. But it was nice. Better than nice – it was absolutely incredible. They sat in comfortable silence for around fifteen minutes, maybe half an hour, just simply watching the Earth and the stars that twinkled at them from below. But then Gideon's monotone voice broke the peaceful atmosphere:

'Captain Lance, I advise you head back inside and close the doors. The oxygen levels will be getting rather low soon.'

'All right,' Sara said heavily, sighing. 'Thanks, Gideon.'

Leonard pressed the button to shut the doors as he helped Sara up to her feet, and then suddenly it was silent and dark, and it felt like they were the only two people on the ship.

'Thank you, Leonard,' Sara said, feeling very nervous all of a sudden as she registered their proximity. 'Really, that was…'

'You're very welcome. Anyway, time for bed?' Leonard suggested, and then he froze. 'I mean, time for us to go to our own separate rooms to our separate beds?'

Sara smirked. 'Aw wow, is Captain Cold feeling awkward?'

'Not at all,' Leonard replied, smiling.

'Then why have you gone bright red?' Sara said teasingly.

Leonard looked at her for a moment, and then cupped her face and pressed his lips tenderly to hers, while drawing her body closer to his. Heart racing, Sara leaned into the kiss but before she had time to fully respond, he had already broken apart from her.

He grimaced. 'Too soon?' he asked, his hands still on her cheek and waist.

'No. No, it's not too soon. Four years is definitely not too soon,' Sara reassured him, breathless and in love, and she grinned. 'One hell of a thief, as always, Snart.'

'So it's okay?' Leonard said, smiling back and gazing at her like she was out of this world.

'Hm-hm.'

'Okay, good.'

And with that Leonard kissed her again, only this time more passionately, and she kissed him back because it was all she had yearned to do for all these years. Leonard ended up slamming her against the wall of the cargo bay, thus knocking the boxes over with an almighty clatter, and they both broke apart laughing, his lips on her neck, his hands in her hair, on her waist, and she knew she was home.

But then another distraction interrupted them in the form of music playing loudly from some speakers in the upper level of the ship. Sara tore her lips away from Leonard's and grinned, bewildered; she would recognise that song anywhere in an instant.

The two of them followed the sound of Captain & Tennille's familiar singing and ended up in the bridge. Mick was there in his pyjamas sat on the steps to the captain's office with a bottle of beer in his hand. Clearly he had woken up in the middle of the night feeling bored and in the need for a drink yet again.

'Mick, why have you put music on?' Sara asked incredulously, as she and Leonard approached him. 'It's three in the morning.'

'I didn't, Gideon did,' Mick protested, taking another swig of beer.

Leonard frowned. 'What do you mean?'

'Well I asked her and she said it was to celebrate. Don't ask me what we're celebrating. Oh.' His eyes had just fallen to the pair of them, and he'd noticed that Sara and Leonard were holding hands. 'Gee, that didn't take you long. You two been screwing this whole time since you moved back in, Snart?'

Sara rolled her eyes. 'No, Mick. Not yet,' she added pointedly, smirking at Leonard, and Leonard raised his eyerbows at her, his lips twitching.

Mick stared at his partner. He had never seen Leonard hold hands with anyone before, not even with his casual flings years ago. Maybe Sara was his exception.

'Well, I'm happy for you,' Mick grunted reluctantly. 'Couldn't have picked a more badass chick.'

Sara frowned at him angrily. 'I'm no one's "chick", Mick, you got that?'

'My bad. "Woman",' Mick corrected herself, and Sara sighed wearily.

'Ugh. Keep working on it.'

'Hey, this is the song you chose when we went to that bar in the seventies, Mick,' Leonard realised. 'Remember, our first day on this ship?'

'You mean the bar where I kicked ass and you just spent half the time checking me out?' Sara asked, raising her eyebrows at him, and Leonard smirked as he squeezed her hand.

'Sounds about right.'

'Gideon has good taste in music,' Sara said proudly.

'I thought it was appropriate seeming as it's your song,' Gideon interjected, and Leonard laughed, while Mick looked horrified, maybe even offended.

'Gideon, I swear you have a problem!' Sara said, amused. 'Computers aren't meant to root for two people to get together!'

'I like it,' Leonard said, and then he held out their hands. 'You wanna dance, Sara?'

Sara stared at him in amazement. 'Who are you and what have you done with Leonard Snart?' she murmured, and then she smiled, oblivious to Mick's appalled expression over in the corner. 'Sure.'

'Nice ring, by the way,' Leonard murmured as he drew her into his arms and they began dancing to the music.

'Oh yeah, crap!' Sara remembered, and she began to fiddle with the silver ring on her finger. 'Here, have it back-'

'No, it's yours,' Leonard insisted.

'You gave it to Mick.'

Leonard raised his eyebrows. 'You really think I gave it to him expecting him to keep it to himself?'

'Right here, guys. Just a reminder,' Mick grunted. 'I'm right here. Just third wheeling, y'know. Carry on. As you were.'

'You've worn it this whole time?' Leonard asked Sara, acting as if Mick had not just interrupted their moment.

'I haven't taken it off since Mick gave it to me,' Sara admitted, and she smiled. 'You sure you don't want it back?'

Leonard smiled and shook his head before leaning his forehead against hers. 'It's yours,' he said gently.

'Softies!' Mick roared, irritated. 'Why are you both so God damn soft now?'

And with that he left the room.

Once they had stopped laughing, Sara kissed Leonard lightly on the lips. 'Welcome back to the Waverider, Captain Cold.'

'Thank you very much, Captain Lance,' Leonard replied, twirling her around. 'Or is it Captain Canary?'

'What, have you turned into Cisco now? That's not a bad code name though, actually,' Sara said thoughtfully. 'Captain Canary. I like it.'

Leonard smiled. 'I like it too.'

As they kissed again Leonard could see now that he was a new man – the same person with the same sarcastic wit and ruthlessness, only now thanks to his near-death experience at the Oculus, he was reborn into the man he had always wanted to be for Sara. He had survived, and he had the woman of his dreams dancing in his arms, her head resting against his chest, and her smile was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen in his life, and he was hers. Just as Sara was his, her mind finally at peace on that confusing pile of emotions that had been invading her mind, because Leonard had helped her see things simply for the first time in so long. He was alive, and they were two people falling in love, dancing to 'Love Will Keep Us Together' in the middle of Sara's own time-travelling ship.

Leonard didn't need to wonder anymore about what the future might hold for them. That future he had dreamed about was already here.


End file.
